Peter Breen, the lawyer for pro-life activist Mark Houck, who was arrested by the FBI for allegedly shoving a Planned Parenthood worker outside a clinic in October 2021, condemned the Department of Justice (DOJ) in a statement Monday.
Breen argued the DOJ’s actions prove it exists “solely to intimidate people of faith and prolife Americans,” according to National Review.
A father of seven who volunteers as a sidewalk counselor outside abortion clinics in Philadelphia, Houck was indicted Friday by a grand jury. He faces up to 11 years in prison and fines of up to $350,000, and has been charged with two counts of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which makes it a federal crime to interfere with someone’s ability to access an abortion clinic. Houck asserts he was defending his 12-year-old son from verbal harassment when the alleged incident occurred. (RELATED: West Virginia Legislature Passes Abortion Ban With Some Exceptions)
“Rather than accepting Mark Houck’s 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,” Breen, said, according to National Review.
UPDATE on Mark Houck, the pro-life father who was SWATed by FBI agents in front of his seven children.
His lawyer: “This case is being brought solely to intimidate people of faith and prolife Americans,” and Houck had promised to “appear voluntarily.”
— Diana Glebova (@DianaGlebova) September 26, 2022
“This case is being brought solely to intimidate people of faith and prolife Americans,” Breen continued, according to the outlet. “Mark Houck is innocent of these lawless charges, and we intend to prove that in court.”
Houck’s wife, Ryan-Marie Houck, told the Catholic News Agency shortly after the arrest that a SWAT team of 25 individuals came armed to their house early Friday morning. She claims they had “five guns pointed at my husband, myself, and basically at my kids.”
Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley sent a letter Monday to the Biden Administration’s DOJ, questioning why Catholic protesters such as Houck are arrested by the FBI, while the DOJ turns “a blind eye to the epidemic of violence across the country by pro-abortion extremists against pregnancy resource centers, houses of worship, and pro-life Americans,” Hawley writes in the letter.