In a closely watched American legal case, a pro-life activist has been found not guilty of a committing a crime outside a Philadelphia abortion clinic.
Father of seven Mark Houck faced up to 11 years in jail if convicted of interfering with a clinic escort in 2021.
The jury cleared him on all counts after apparently accepting his defence that the escort had abusively confronted both Mr. Houck and his 12-year-old son in separate incidents.
Mr. Houck’s lawyers claimed the escort initiated the confrontation which was in violation of the clinic’s non-engagement policy which instructs escorts not to engage with the pro-life counselors.
The lawyers from the Thomas More Society said they were thrilled with the outcome.
The Society’s Executive Vice president President Peter Breen said they took on the Goliath of the United States government — and won.
“Mark and his family are now free of the cloud that the Biden administration threw upon them. The jury saw through and rejected the prosecution’s discriminatory case, which was harassment from day one. This is a win for Mark and the entire pro-life movement. The Biden Department of Justice’s intimidation against pro-life people and people of faith has been put in its place,” Mr. Breen stated.
The acquittal came after up to 20 heavily-armed FBI agents raided Mr. Houck’s home last October and arrested him in front of his terrified family.
His lawyers had previously offered to bring him in for questioning.
During every court recess at his trial, Mr. Houck’s close friend Pastor Bill Devlin would take people outside and lead them in prayer.
Many also fasted in addition to praying that God would bring victory for the pro-lifer.
Pastor Devlin told The Christian Post that after hearing the arguments for dismissing the case, the judge stated, “It appears to me that the US government is stretching the statute of the Act (relating to protests outside abortion clinics).”
The defence legal team maintained that the case “never should have been brought to federal court” and the fact that it was is a “disgrace.”
