{"id":1662529,"date":"2022-09-28T13:20:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T17:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1662529"},"modified":"2022-09-28T13:21:23","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T17:21:23","slug":"political-prosecution-pro-life-activist-mark-houck-fights-back-pleads-not-guilty-to-federal-charges-after-controversial-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/political-prosecution-pro-life-activist-mark-houck-fights-back-pleads-not-guilty-to-federal-charges-after-controversial-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Political Prosecution\u2019: Pro-Life Activist Mark Houck Fights Back, Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Charges After Controversial Arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpolitical-prosecution-pro-life-activist-mark-houck-fights-back-pleads-not-guilty-to-federal-charges-after-controversial-arrest%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1662529&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/fbi-swat-team-conducts-early-morning-raid-arrests-pro-life-activist-at-pennsylvania-home-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pro-life activist<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/catholicism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Catholic<\/a> father of seven Mark Houck is fighting back after he was arrested by some 20 armed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/fbi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FBI<\/a> agents at his Pennsylvania home early Friday morning in front of his children and wife.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/doj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Department of Justice<\/a> is targeting Houck, who leads a nonprofit group that provides sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics in Philadelphia, over an incident last year involving his then-12-year-old son at a Planned Parenthood abortion facility. The family says Houck, who is now facing 11 years behind bars and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/pennsylvania-pro-life-activist-arrested-fbi-charged-assaulting-clinic-escort\">fines<\/a> up to $350,000, was defending his son from a harassing pro-abortion activist.<\/p>\n<p>Houck\u2019s attorney is slamming the targeting as blatant \u201cpolitical prosecution,\u201d and the Catholic father has pleaded not guilty to the charges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a political prosecution,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/pro-life-activist-mark-houck-pleads-not-guilty-federal-charges-fbi-arrest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">asserted<\/a> attorney Peter Breen, Thomas More Society vice president.<\/p>\n<p>Breen went further, saying the Biden DOJ acted against Houck to \u201csend a message\u201d to pro-life Americans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd what\u2019s clear from the Department of Justice\u00a0at its highest levels, which is directing this case, [is] that they are trying to send a message to pro-life and people of faith: \u2018Don\u2019t mess with us,&#8217;\u201d he said. \u201cThey want to intimidate \u2014 they want to cause good people like Mark to stop praying and counseling at the abortion clinics of our country. And that\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat in the world would possess the Department of Justice to send 20 or so heavily armed agents to this family\u2019s home, violate the sanctity of that home, frighten the children and then drag their father away instead of allowing us to present him peacefully, which we had offered to do?\u201d the attorney questioned.<\/p>\n<p>Breen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/news\/lawyer-for-pro-life-protester-arrested-by-fbi-says-client-offered-to-surrender-claims-doj-trying-to-intimidate-people-of-faith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> earlier this week that though they felt there was no federal case, his client would have\u00a0appeared voluntarily; instead, Houck was treated \u201cas if he was a drug lord or a mafia boss.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRather than accepting Mark Houck\u2019s offer to appear voluntarily, the Biden Department of Justice chose to make an unnecessary show of potentially deadly force, sending twenty heavily armed federal agents to the Houck residence at dawn this past Friday,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n<div data-iu=\"lb2\" data-ad-size=\"728x90,300x250,320x50,300x50,1x1,fluid\" data-ad-lz=\"1\" data-hot-unit=\"\" data-ad-init=\"1\" data-ad-slot-rendered=\"1\" data-rendered-size=\"300x250\" data-google-query-id=\"CPbxnsrxt_oCFZUOaAgd8FYICA\">\n<p>\u201cIt put officers\u2019 lives in danger. It put the Houck family in danger. And it was an utter waste of judicial resources and taxpayer resources,\u201d Breen noted, adding that it was curious the charges took so long if Houck was such a supposed danger.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/pennsylvania-pro-life-activist-arrested-fbi-charged-assaulting-clinic-escort\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> Friday that Houck was\u00a0charged by indictment with violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for allegedly assaulting a person who provides abortion-related services.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/fundraiser-for-doj-targeted-pro-life-activist-mark-houck-hits-new-milestone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GiveSendGo account<\/a> for the Houck family says the activist was praying in front of the Planned Parenthood with his son and reacted to a pro-abortion activist harassing the 12-year-old child.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year, Mark and his son were praying in front of the [Planned Parenthood] at 12th and Locust,\u201d the account says. \u201cWhen one of the escorts began harassing Mark\u2019s son they walked down the street away from the entrance to the building. The escort followed them, and when he continued yelling at Mark\u2019s son, Mark pushed him away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s all on video,\u201d the post continues. \u201cBut that hasn\u2019t stopped Planned Parenthood and the Biden Administration. With no prior warning, and in spite of the fact that Mark is represented by an attorney, Biden\u2019s Justice Department sent a fully armed SWAT team into a home full of young children at daybreak, to arrest a father for protecting his son.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/still-no-charges-for-man-who-admits-to-shooting-84-year-old-pro-life-canvasser\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Still No Charges For Man Who Admits To Shooting 84-Year-Old Pro-Life\u00a0Canvasser<\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pro-life activist and Catholic father of seven Mark Houck is fighting back after he was arrested by some 20 armed FBI agents at his Pennsylvania home early Friday morning in front of his children and wife. The Department of Justice is targeting Houck, who leads a nonprofit group that provides sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1658377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1662529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1662529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1658377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1662529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1662529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1662529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}