Face to Face with the FBI
Action Tip: There was a time when the FBI was held in high honor as a virtuous law-enforcement agency. Beware, this is not that time.
In May of 2022, someone leaked a draft of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision. The document indicated that the court planned to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the abortion issue to the states. The news triggered an avalanche of violence and vandalism against pro-life centers and churches that continues to this day. According to the Religious Freedom Institute, since the leak of the Supreme Court decision, “perpetrators have attacked at least 63 pro-life organizations, across 26 states and the District of Columbia.” While some local law enforcement agencies have conducted investigations, the response of the FBI and other agencies to these federal crimes has been impotent.
No one has been arrested for leaking the Dobbs decision and since that breach, we are unaware of any federal arrests for bombing, burning, or vandalism of pro-life centers or churches.
However, in recent weeks, the FBI has arrested at least twelve pro-life activists.
Interview with Mark Houck
In the early morning hours of Friday, September 23, more than twenty heavily armed FBI agents surrounded Mark Houck’s home and pounded on his door. With guns pointed at his wife and children, the FBI arrested Houck for an alleged violation of the FACE Act, the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act passed during the Clinton administration. This act prohibits protesters from interfering with women intent on having an abortion.
According to both the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist, about a year ago Bruce Love, an abortion advocate, approached Houck’s then twelve-year-old son outside an abortion clinic shouting “crude … inappropriate and disgusting things.” Houck repeatedly told Love to leave his son alone but Love persisted. During the final encounter Houck “verbally confronted” and pushed Love causing him to fall on the sidewalk and be injured. According to a Houck family spokesman, the injury was minor and required only “a Band-Aid on his finger.”
Whatever the injury, liberal Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner refused to file charges against Houck. Love did file a civil complaint but it was dismissed when Love failed to appear for the hearing. Most people thought that was the end of the matter.
Nearly a year after the encounter at the abortion clinic, the FBI arrived at Houck’s home and pounded on the door. It doesn’t matter that no charges were filed by city or state officials or that the civil complaint was dismissed. The federal government has charged Mark Houck with two felonies—assault and a violation of the FACE Act.
While I gathered information for the first part of this article, the FBI stepped up its campaign. On October 5, 2022, a group of eleven other pro-life activists were indicted for violations of the FACE Act. One of the eleven, Paul Vaughn, described the peaceful protest to Townhall saying they were sitting on the floor in the hallway outside of Carafem Health Center Clinic, an abortion facility located within a medical office building.
Video of the raid on the home of Paul Vaughn
Vaughn, the president of Personhood Alliance, was not arrested or charged at the scene. “Instead of sitting-in, he had been recording the protest and working to mediate between the pro-life rescuers and the police to ensure everyone’s safety. No one was hurt and no property was damaged….” However, over a year later, at 7:20 in the morning, armed FBI agents arrived at Vaughn’s home.
According to Townhall, with weapons drawn, they corralled several of his children who were outside and about to go to school and banged on the front door so hard the old farmhouse shook. When Vaughn opened the door, he was quickly handcuffed on the porch in front of his wife and children. The agents did not show badges, provided no warrant, and never indicated where they were taking him.
Paul Vaughn, Mark Houck, and others each face eleven years in prison and up to $350,000 in fines. Fundraising campaigns have been established at GiveSendGo. Click on the following links to contribute to Mark Houck or Paul Vaughn.
In a time of increased lawlessness and violence across the country, is punishing peaceful protestors the proper focus for the FBI? Could this current emphasis on pro-life activists be a political ploy by the Democrats ahead of the mid-term elections? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
