A pro-life activist is suing the Biden administration’s Department of Justice after he was raided and arrested last year. Mark Houck, a Catholic father of seven, had his Pennsylvania home raided where he was arrested by an estimated 20 armed FBI agents in front of his wife and children.
Reportedly, Biden’s Department of Justice was targeting Houck, who heads a nonprofit organization focused on providing consultation on sidewalks outside of abortion clinics outside of the Philadelphia area. Houck allegedly came under the DOJ’s radar following a 2021 incident involving his son, who was being harassed by a pro-abortion activist.
The charges Houck was facing would have landed him 11 years behind bars with possible fines of up to $350,000. However, earlier this year the father was acquitted of charges based on the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances or FACE Act.
The Houck family’s lawsuit now seeks over $1 million in damages for several infractions related to the raid and arrest. The suit detailed the traumatic experience and the lasting impact it has had on the family’s children. Houck’s wife, Ryan-Marie Houck, is seeking an additional $3.25 million in damages for the detrimental impact the stress has caused her. Reportedly, Mrs. Houck faces PTSD and has had several miscarriages from stress and anxiety.
“Mrs. Houck has also shouldered the emotional distress of caring for her seven children and their individual needs as they each process their own trauma from these events,” according to the lawsuit. “The children continually come to her crying and suffering from nightmares. They slept in bed with her and her husband for the first month after the arrest, and they continue to ask to sleep in their parents’ bed. The children are easily triggered whenever the situation is brought up or unannounced guests arrive at the property, and she spends a significant amount of time counseling and comforting them.”
The incident, which led to the entire ordeal, began with Houck and his son simply praying in front of a Planned Parenthood location, when the father defended his son from harassing behavior. “Mark and his son were praying in front of the [Planned Parenthood] at 12th and Locust. When one of the escorts began harassing Mark’s son they walked down the street away from the entrance to the building. The escort followed them, and when he continued yelling at Mark’s son, Mark pushed him away,” according to a fundraiser.
The post slammed the Biden administration for its unwarranted response to the encounter. The DOJ has been heavily criticized for sending an entire SWAT team to Houck’s residence to carry out the arrest. “It’s all on video,” the fundraising post continued. “But that hasn’t 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’s 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.”
Republicans have slammed the Biden administration in recent years for what many feel is the weaponization of the federal government to combat its political opponents and conservative ideology.
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