A pro-life father and husband who was acquitted of a federal charge stemming from an incident outside of an abortion clinic shared his story with nearly 500 attending the 2023 Thomas More Society banquet in Omaha Oct. 18.
The annual event at the Scott Conference Center in Omaha also included the presentation of the Defender of Life Award by Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen to State Senators Kathleen Kauth and Joni Albrecht for their work in the Legislature focused on life issues.
Keynote speaker Mark Houck faced a federal charge of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE Act. The charge came nearly a year after he was involved in a shoving incident with an escort while protecting his young son outside a Planned Parenthood facility in Philadelphia. Federal agents and state troopers raided his home nearly a year after local officials declined to prosecute him. A jury later found him not guilty. The Thomas More Society represented him in the case.
Before his address at the banquet, Houck sat down for an interview with Dennis Kellogg, director of communications for the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, in which he talked about the legal process, the impact on his faith and his family, and the ongoing battle to protect the unborn. What follows is an edited transcript of that interview.
Dennis Kellogg, Southern Nebraska Register: Your incident was a very high profile one. Describe what that altercation was like and then what happened almost a year later.
Mark Houck, pro-life sidewalk counselor: So it was Oct. 13, 2021. I was on the sidewalk with my son, my 12-year-old boy. And we’ve been going down there for a full year together as father and son, but I’ve been going to this facility for 20 years.
It’s Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia and a volunteer escort for Planned Parenthood basically was harassing and badgering my son. After repeated requests to stop, he did not, and so we just got involved in that, as a father protecting his son.
It ended up in a shoving match on the sidewalk in Philadelphia, which is not a big deal in the city of Philadelphia. Nonetheless, the private criminal complaint was all dismissed at the state level. And then the feds served me a target letter on April 27 of 2022.
Almost six months later, which is almost a full year from that original incident, I was raided at my home. I was at my kitchen table when my door was banged upon and 20-plus federal law enforcement and (Pennsylvania) troopers were outside my home, prepared to come in if I wasn’t awake and willing to open the door. This was a heavy raid upon my family, seven sleeping children, and my wife. Very scary.
SNR: You faced a charge of the FACE Act, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The jury found you not guilty. Do you feel in your heart that whole incident was politically motivated?
Houck: One hundred percent. If there was another administration in the White House, none of this would have happened.
Everything was dismissed. The (district attorney) in Philadelphia is a rabid pro-abortionist. He wasn’t interested in doing anything. Clearly, the government was involved, clearly the government was watching. They told the state to stand down and they picked it up. They picked it up so that they could charge me because if it went to court, to the best of my understanding in Philadelphia, there would have been a ruling on it and I don’t think they would have been able to charge me with the same crime.
I’m not sure about that. but essentially, they had to tell them to stop so that they could pick up the case, and that’s exactly what they did. It was all part of the two-tiered system of justice that is in our country right now.
SNR: What should pro-life supporters across the country take away from what happened to you?
Houck: Persevere. Know that the Thomas More Society has your back, that God has your back, that grace will sustain you, nothing to fear.
We’re just exercising our First Amendment rights. We’re doing what we do and that’s what we’re called to do. I would tell people to stand your ground, stay at your post, and don’t fear, because God will bring you what you need.
If you happen to have an unfortunate instance like in my case, the support will come and God will do the fighting for you.
SNR: Through all of this, how was your Catholic faith affected? Was it shaken? Was it strengthened?
Houck: Never shaken because we knew that we were being persecuted for Christ. And so as a Catholic Christian man, it was the Beatitudes.
I was living the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the persecuted, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” So my faith grew. I became more like Christ through it. My will was perfectly united with Christ.
I can’t answer the same for my wife and children. I mean, they did grow. But I’m sure the children themselves have great questions in their little hearts as to why God would allow something like this, but you know, we help them with that.
SNR: Is there any bitterness or any anger about what your family and what you had to go through?
Houck: I have no bitterness. Bitterness is like drinking poison and hoping another person dies, right? There’s no resentment. I know people are fallible, they’re sinners. And unfortunately, when you’re on the side that we’re on, which is the side of God, the evil one is not going to be happy, and so when we’re persecuted, we should expect it.
Jesus said, ‘they hated me, they’re going to hate you.’ So I consider myself in good company. And so to have bitterness would be, almost, in a sense, to reject what God has called me to do.
SNR: In the last few years, we’ve seen high profile abortion cases, we’ve seen the reversal of Roe v. Wade. From a big-picture standpoint, are we winning the battle for the unborn?
Houck: We’re in a post-Roe era and the battle has just begun. Look, nothing changed in Pennsylvania after the Dobbs case. Nothing changed. In many other places around the country, yes, the trigger laws basically eliminated abortion, but they increased in the neighboring states.
So we’ve got a lot of work to do and we have a lot of reason to be hopeful. But the battle has just begun.
SNR: When you talk to big groups like you’re going to talk to tonight, what’s the takeaway? What’s the message you want them to leave with?
Houck: My core message with them is that you’ve got to be all in. You’ve got to be all in with the pro-life movement. You’ve got to be all in for God, and to basically double down on everything that you’re already doing.
After we were arrested, a lot of people pulled back. That’s the last thing you want to do. So my message is, let’s get more invested. Let’s get more invested in the Thomas More Society. Let’s invest more in the movement and let’s do all that God is asking of us. It’s a sacred duty to really see it that way. That’s my core message.
Watch a video of theinterview with Mark Houck on the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln YouTube channel. While there, subscribe to the channel for more Catholic videos from the diocese.
