Who is Mark Houck? He’s a person who was doing what I was doing here in Alaska when I was his age: spending time, a lot of time, in front of abortion clinics. There are several ways to save an unborn child’s life: block the doors, thus preventing entry; hand out leaflets to offer an alternative to killing your baby; and just plain picketing.
You will note that if Mark Houck had been convicted, the Lamestream Media would have been all over it with coverage. But, because he was acquitted, you will only hear of his exoneration from conservative and prolife news outlets.
Many untold numbers of women have chosen to keep their babies, instead of cutting them to pieces, merely because they read a sign that said something simple: “Mommy, I love you” or “It’s a baby, not a choice” or “Abortion lasts forever.” That’s what Mark Houck was doing with his 12-year-old son in Philadelphia, something his family does a lot, when a harassing clinic “escort,” Bruce Love – a volunteer meant to steer abortion clients past the prolife pleas – began pestering Houck’s son in what was likely a deliberate effort to create an incident.
Getting “in the face” of a 12-year-old, aggressively berating him with his dad nearby, was bound to elicit a response. Love had been told, even by Planned Parenthood staff, not to engage in these antics, but he likely understood that there are two different standards already well at play in American justice. All conservatives and pro-lifers are held to a higher standard of conduct, but leftists and pro-aborts have complete license.
When Houck could not persuade Love to leave his son alone, he had to push him away. When a dad sees a clear threat to his child, he does not wait for the potential aggressor to attack. He acts to defend his child, and takes the consequences, come what may. That is what a real man does. Love predictably complained, but the Philadelphia police brushed him off immediately when they took the reports from both sides, and that was that.
But not with a bone-headed puppet running the federal Department of Justice in Merrick Garland. On an obvious “fishing expedition,” more than a year later, he ordered an FBI team to raid Houck’s home in front of his traumatized family and cart him off on federal charges. When the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act [FACE] was passed in the early 1990s, pro-lifers immediately saw its implications. It was tough enough being carted off and arrested by local cops, and quite another when it becomes a federal case.
From Life News: The federal government attempted to claim that Houck violated all elements of the FACE Act because he had undeniably pushed Love, as evidenced by video footage; that he did so to stop him from his work as an abortion “escort”; and that he was motivated to do so because he “had had enough” of Love performing his function, according to reporting by Catholic News Agency journalist Joe Bukuras.
However, Houck consistently stated that he simply pushed Love “because he was harassing my 12-year-old boy.”
In addition, the defense team presented evidence earlier in the trial indicating that the FACE Act was never intended to cover abortion “escorts.” The late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, chief sponsor of the legislation, had clearly stated that “Demonstrators, clinic defenders, escorts, and other persons not involved in obtaining or providing services in the facility may not bring such a cause of action.”
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
The Planned Parenthood “escort” manual explicitly forbids the volunteers from engaging in altercations with protesters. Defense attorney Brian McMonagle also observed that the CEO of the local Planned Parenthood chapter wanted Love pulled from his rotation because of his failures to abide by the policy.
Clearly, then, the Garland “justice” department is acting in a tyrannical and political manner. They have ignored hundreds of incidents of vandalism, fire-bombing and threats nationwide to churches, pro-life clinics and social clubs, and also here in Alaska. Even as the wooden-headed AG has lost this case, the intimidation factor is a message intended for pro-lifers everywhere.
Unless and until the allegedly conservative, prolife Republicans in Congress initiate impeachment charges against Garland, and Biden for that matter, such “victories” for the prolife movement will be empty.
