Reportedly this past Friday, a fairly large group of FBI agents kicked off an operation to raid the home of one pro-life activist in order to arrest him.
A group of roughly 30 FBI agents took part in the early morning raid in Bucks County Pennsylvania, against the home of Mark Houck, a pro-life activist, explained his family to LifeSite News. Houck is the head of one nonprofit group stationed in Philadelphia which provides sidewalk counseling near abortion clinics. The arrest that took place during the raid seems to be related to a year-old court case that was outright dismissed by a federal court in Philadelphia but was someone then grabbed by the Department of Justice, explained the members of his family.
“The kids were all just screaming,” Ryan-Marie, Houck’s wife, stated to LifeSite. “It was all just very scary and traumatic.”
It was explained to the outlet by Ryan-Marie Houck that the group of agents decked out in full SWAT gear showed up in roughly 15 separate vehicles just outside of the family home at roughly 7 in the morning on Friday. The agents rushed to surround the house and started to beat on the door, issuing demands that they open their doors immediately. Houck reportedly attempted to calm the agents down, pointing out that his seven kids were terrified at what was going on, but the agents would not be deterred. “[T]hey had big, huge rifles pointed at Mark and pointed at me and kind of pointed throughout the house,” expressed the wife.
Houck, along with his wife, questioned the agents as to why they were there, to which they were allegedly told by the agents that they were there in order to arrest the man. His wife asked the agents to provide a warrant, but “they said that they were going to take him whether they had a warrant or not,” remembered Ryna-Marie. She expressed her protest to the situation, stating that what the agents were doing was the same thing as outright kidnapping. Only at that point did the agents produce a copy of the warrant they were supposedly executing. Just after that exchange, Houck was apparently ushered out of the house and shoved in the back of one of the small army of vehicles.
In the end, however, the agents seemed to soften up after realizing just what kind of distress they had inflicted upon the family, namely the children, recounted Houck’s wife. “After they had taken Mark, and the kids were all screaming that he was their best friend, the [agents] kind of softened a bit,” she explained. “I think they realized what was happening. Or maybe they actually looked at the warrant.”
“They looked pretty ashamed at what had just happened,” she stated.
As stated on the warrant brought by the agents, which has been made public by LifeSite reporter Patrick Delaney, this warrant seems to stem from an indictment on charges in relation to the violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994, more specifically for “attack[ing] a patient escort.”
As explained by the wife, Houck was present then to provide any needed sidewalk counseling near a Philadelphia area abortion center last year and had brought his then 12-year-old son with him. On several separate instances throughout his stint there a “pro-abortion protestor” allegedly screamed vulgarities and obscenities at the young child. Houck repeatedly asked the protestor not to speak to his son, but the protestor persisted with his harassment and move closer into the young boy’s personal space, all while screaming obscenities. In the end, Houck shoved the man away from the child, resulting in the man falling over. The protestor suffered no injury other than his pride from the incident but attempted to take Houck to court. Despite the case being summarily thrown out in a federal court, the DOJ chose to snatch the case back up, explained Ryan-Marie Houck.
Below is the first page of the warrant issued for the FBI SWAT raid of Catholic pro-life speaker, author and sidewalk councilor, Mike Houck. pic.twitter.com/XeVLhbxAYI
— Patrick Delaney (@PatrickDDelaney) September 24, 2022
