Arrest of Catholic Pro-Life Speaker A ‘New Low’ for Justice Department: Attorney

The lead attorney in the case involving pro-life speaker Mark Houck said that sending a team of heavily armed federal agents to his client’s home to arrest him in front of his wife and children on Sept. 23 represents a “new low” for the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Regular law-abiding citizens should not fear 20 heavily armed agents at their door to drag them out while trying to enjoy their morning coffee. This is outrageous,” said Peter Breen, vice president and senior attorney at the Thomas More Society, a national non-profit law firm.

Breen said that federal law enforcement usually reserves such shows of force for “a drug lord or a mafia boss—that’s how they came out to the Houck family home.”

Houck, 48, a Catholic pro-life speaker, author, and father of seven from Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, faces two counts of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act).

San Mateo County SWAT team officers near Youtube headquarters following an active shooter situation in San Bruno, California, U.S., April 3, 2018. (Reuters/Elijah Nouvelage)

Both charges stemmed from an altercation with a patient escort outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in October 2021.

“Here’s what we know,” Breen told The Epoch Times in a phone interview. “We know this [raid] was done at main justice out of Washington, D.C., and someone had to approve that size of a raid to execute an arrest warrant when the defendant’s attorney had offered to bring him in.”

“So that has to be approved at a high level within the Department Of Justice—possibly from the attorney general himself. But, certainly, one of his top people.”

Houck was scheduled to be in federal court in Philadelphia today, Sept. 27, at 1:30 p.m. for his arraignment. If convicted, he faces up to 11 years in prison,