Sidewalk counselor Mark Houck was arrested after his home was raided in September of 2022 by 15-20 armed FBI agents, in front of his terrified children. Houck filed suit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) in November, and now the pro-life organization 40 Days for Life is joining him.
Houck’s arrest stemmed from an altercation outside of a Planned Parenthood in 2021, during which a regular abortion facility escort allegedly accosted Houck’s 12-year-old son, though there were no clients present at the abortion facility at the time. Houck said he had to physically push the escort to get him away from his son. Despite the fact that lower courts did not charge Houck, the FBI responded by showing up in the early morning hours at Houck’s house in 2022, and charged him with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for assaulting an escort. He was eventually acquitted of all charges, but the entire ordeal was traumatizing for his family.
“All of the children were screaming,” Ryan-Marie, Houck’s wife, said in an interview with Live Action founder and president Lila Rose. “My son was saying, ‘You can’t take him. He’s my best friend.’ My daughter Therese was really a mess after she saw the people in the back of the house… It was seven kids running around screaming and crying and grabbing onto my legs.”
Houck, who was shackled and chained to a table for six hours, added, “[It was] an act of terror designed to humiliate, intimidate and instill fear in us and they’ve effectively done that with our children to this day, but [to] instill fear in pro-life America, right? Because this is now becoming an overreach of government.”
In November of 2023, Houck sued the Department of Justice, alleging that the FBI used excessive force during the arrest. And last week, the newly-formed 40 Days for Life Institute of Law & Justice filed another lawsuit on behalf of Houck. “This lawsuit won’t defend only Mark’s rights — but also the rights of ALL pro-life Americans targeted by the compromised and biased DOJ,” the pro-life organization wrote in a press release. “We’ve worked well with the many great men and women at the DOJ and FBI since 2007. What changed? The overturning of Roe v. Wade. 40 Days for Life is closing abortion facilities, and the only way to get rid of 40 Days for Life is to get rid of free speech. We launched the Institute of Law & Justice to protect our mission and defend prayer volunteers with the most professional, talented, and experienced attorneys with a long record of winning in court.”
“My children’s innocence was taken in an instant,” Houck previously said. “You cannot put a price on that innocence. The stuff that my wife and I have invested in our children for the last 15 years – in their protection, in their safety, in their innocence by homeschooling them, by protecting them, by teaching them – all of that was taken away in an instant. We don’t know the long-term effects of this. What’s the two-year-old going to say in five years? What’s the four-year-old going to say in ten years? How are they gonna feel around law enforcement?”
He added, “There’s no amount that is going to make me feel like there’s accountability. But there needs to be something to demonstrate to the American people, to the populace, that the government will be held accountable.”
Editor’s Note, 12/11/24: Updated with further information from press release.
