The pro-life activist and father of seven who was targeted with an FBI raid under the Biden administration won a lawsuit payout of over $1 million, one of the ministries supporting him announced earlier this month.
Mark Houck, who lives near Philadelphia, regularly ministered outside the Planned Parenthood location in the Center City neighborhood, sometimes taking his 12-year-old son to experience the harrowing work of trying to save babies on the brink of murder.
On one occasion in October 2021, a volunteer clinic escort verbally harassed his son with profane language, prompting Houck to shove the man to protect his child.
The Thomas More Society, which represented Houck, noted that the private case against him was dismissed after the clinic escort failed to appear at the hearing.
Armed agents pointed weapons at his wife and children.
This wasn’t justice. It was intimidation.
But it failed.
Mark just won a 7-figure settlement against the DOJ.
Watch⬇️https://t.co/eNSKZlTz1i
— 40 Days for Life (@40daysforlife) April 9, 2026
But almost a year later, in September 2022, over two dozen heavily armed FBI agents raided Houck’s home, shocking his wife and young children.
“The Department of Justice had decided to make an example of Mark, charging him with two felony counts and threatening him with prison time for defending his family and advocating for life,” the Thomas More Society said.
Houck faced 11 years in prison under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act — also known as the FACE Act — but he was acquitted after his jury trial in January 2023.
Nearly five years after the initial incident, the ministry 40 Days for Life announced in a video that a lawsuit filed against the Department of Justice resulted in the payout of more than $1 million.
40 Days for Life CEO Shawn Carney called the settlement “a huge victory for free speech.”
He also described it as “a huge victory for all Americans who want our right to speak our minds peacefully in a law-abiding way without fear of our own government.”
“It has been absolutely night and day. Under Biden, at one point, we were getting one to two inquiries from the FBI per week at different 40 Days for Life locations,” Carney added.
The trial of Mark Houck begins today, a Catholic father of 7 and pro-life activist who had 30 FBI agents arrest him in front of his family and the Biden DOJ is trying to put in jail for 11 years all for pushing a Planned Parenthood volunteer who threatened his son. pic.twitter.com/ymZHLmcG7p
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 24, 2023
The Christian Post noted that the lawsuit settlement comes as the Department of Justice, now under the control of the Trump administration, is preparing to release a report on the weaponization of the FACE Act against anti-abortion activists.
Some Republican lawmakers have called for repealing the FACE Act to avoid future targeting of Christians.
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