Pro-Life Catholic Father Arrested by FBI Announces Pennsylvania Congressional Run

Mark Houck with his seven children (L-R) Joshua, Therese, Mark Jr., Imelda, Ava, Kathryn, and Augustine at their home in Kintnersville, Pa., on March 17, 2023. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

A Catholic pro-life advocate who was arrested and charged by President Joe Biden’s administration following an incident outside a Planned Parenthood clinic has announced he is running for Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District.

Mark Houck, a father of seven, announced the news in a statement on his newly-launched campaign website.

The website states that the 48-year-old, who is a resident of East Greenville in Pennsylvania, plans to restore faith, family, and freedom if he makes it into Congress.

“I am running for Congress to further protect my family, those in the 1st district, and the Republic,” Mr. Houck’s website states. ”I will focus on restoring traditional values and principles that are central to the American identity, such as faith, family, freedom of speech, religion, and the right to bear arms.”

“I have seen first-hand what an out-of-control government can do to its citizens,” his website continues. “I will fight to protect all people and their rights under God and our Constitution. My platform is based on common sense.”

Mr. Houck was involved in an altercation with a volunteer clinic escort at a Philadelphia Planned Parenthood clinic in October 2021.

According to prosecutors, Mr. Houck twice pushed an escort because they were “verbally harassing” his 12-year-old son. The escort allegedly sustained injuries that required medical attention.

The Houck family (from left to right), Therese, Mark Jr., Augustine, Mark Houck, Joshua, Ryan-Marie, Ava, Imelda, and Kathryn at their home in Kintnersville, Pa., on March 17, 2023. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

FBI Raid

At the time of the incident, law enforcement declined to pursue charges in the case. However, Mr. Houck was then arrested nearly a year later in September 2022 by agents with the FBI during an early morning raid on his home.

The Department of Justice subsequently charged Mr. Houck with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which was passed by Congress in 1994 and prohibits “threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services or other federal criminal statutes where arson, firearms, and threats were also used.”

A lawyer for Mr. Houck said at the time of his client’s arrest that the DOJ was targeting the pro-life activist “solely to intimidate people of faith and pro-life Americans.”

“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,” his attorney said.

“In threatening form, after nearly breaking down the family’s front door, at least five agents pointed guns at Mark’s head and arrested him in front of his wife and seven young children who were terrified that their husband and father would be shot dead before their eyes,” the attorney added.

Restoring Family Values, Protecting the Pre-born Child

A spokesman for the FBI Philadelphia field office denied the lawyer’s claims at the time, telling multiple publications that no agents pointed guns at Mr. Houck or his family members but acknowledged that agents did draw weapons when they approached his front door.

A 12-person jury later unanimously found Mr. Houck not guilty of both counts of violating the FACE Act.

On his campaign website, Mr. Houck, who is also the founder of a non-profit organization dedicated to helping Catholic men “grow in virtue and accountability,” vows to protect citizens’ rights and freedoms, and prevent the government from interfering with the constitutional rights of ordinary American citizens.

He also pledges to bolster support for military veterans, address the crisis in fatherhood as it pertains to juvenile and adult crime, fight to protect the “assault on our borders,” and “restore family values by instituting and promoting policy that protects the dignity of the human person, in particular the pre-born child.”

Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District includes all of Bucks County and a small part of Montgomery County. The seat Mr. Houck is vying for has been held by Republican Brian Fitzpatrick since 2019.

Mr. Fitzpatrick, who previously worked as an FBI supervisory special agent and special assistant U.S. attorney, is running for the seat again in 2024.