On a Friday morning in September 2022, Mark Houck was getting his seven children ready for the day when FBI agents arrived at his front door with guns drawn. They arrested him in front of his wife and kids. His crime? Pushing a Planned Parenthood escort who had been verbally harassing his 12-year-old son outside a clinic in Philadelphia.
Local law enforcement had already dismissed the matter. But the Biden DOJ did not dismiss it. They dusted it off, charged Houck under the FACE Act, and sent armed agents to his home rather than allow him to surrender. He was found not guilty.
Today, a 900-page DOJ report confirms what Houck and every pro-life American already knew: the Biden Justice Department weaponized federal law to target them, while firebombings, arsons, and death threats against pregnancy centers and churches went largely unprosecuted.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act of 1994 was signed by President Bill Clinton and was widely regarded as a way to protect abortion clinics when it was passed.
However, there is an interesting clause in there regarding the intentional damage or destruction of a reproductive health care facility or a place of worship, which is what just came back to bite the Biden administration.
That specific clause means this goes both ways: abortion clinics have protections, but so do pro-life reproductive health care facilities. Yet, they were not being treated the same way during the Biden administration.
While there were many prosecutions of pro-lifers between 2022 and 2024, the most glaring example of the weaponization of the FACE Act was the arrest and prosecution of Mark Houck.
Houck has been accused of having allegedly assaulted escorts on two different occasions. The DOJ release announcing the indictment stated:
“According to court documents, Mark Houck, 48, of Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, is alleged to have twice assaulted a man because he was a volunteer reproductive health clinic escort. The two-count indictment charges Houck with a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which makes it a federal crime to use force with the intent to injure, intimidate, and interfere with anyone because that person is a provider of reproductive health care.
“The charges stem from two separate incidents on Oct. 13, 2021, where Houck assaulted the victim, identified in the indictment as ‘B.L.,’ because B.L. was a volunteer escort at the reproductive health care clinic.”
What truly created outrage over the case was the manner in which Houck was arrested.
His wife, Ryan-Marie Houck, claimed that in the early morning hours of September 23, 2022, an FBI SWAT unit showed up at the house with between 25 and 30 agents, weapons drawn. She stated that the agents:
“Had big, huge rifles pointed at Mark and pointed at me and kind of pointed throughout the house.”
Houck claimed he was protecting his son, who was being harassed by the volunteer. Local authorities dismissed the case, but as you saw above, the Biden DOJ decided to prosecute, and it just cost the American taxpayer a seven-figure settlement.
In January 2023, Houck was acquitted, according to Rolling Stone. This week, the Christian Post reported that Houck has been awarded more than $1 million in the suit against the DOJ for the arrest and prosecution of Houck.
This, along with other cases, had conservatives thinking that the DOJ was one-sided, especially because we were seeing very few arrests or indictments on the other side of the aisle, even though attacks were being reported on the news.
While the Houck case was working its way through the courts, Fox News had reported more than 17+ Jane’s Revenge attacks (more on this later in the report), and zero arrests had been made.
At the forefront of this movement to hold the Biden administration accountable on this front was Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). Cotton even demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland resign over this.
Fox News reported that Cotton had penned a letter to Garland on this front, in part, stating:
"Houses of worship and pro-life pregnancy centers are under attack. The Family Research Council has compiled a list of more than 50 attacks against churches, pro-life pregnancy centers, and other pro-life groups in the past few weeks. A left-wing extremist group called ‘Jane's Revenge’ has taken credit for many of these attacks, including firebombings and grotesque acts of vandalism."
He later added:
"What is the Department of Justice doing to protect Americans from these violent attacks? At a minimum, you should bring federal charges against the perpetrators, where appropriate, and investigate ‘Jane's Revenge’ as a domestic terrorist organization. If you are unwilling to protect Americans from these attacks, you should resign-although, in my opinion, you should resign in any case.”
The Justice Department's Weaponization Working Group just published a 900-page report that shows just how bad this weaponization was.
Some of the key findings of the report are:
You can read the report in full, but I did want to touch on some of these bullet points to show you a small sample of what was taking place.
Collaboration – the report found that Biden’s DOJ was working closely with groups like the National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood, and Feminist Majority Foundation to push targets for enforcement. The groups were more or less working as intelligence agencies for the DOJ, then forwarding those dossiers that ultimately led to search warrants and charges.
Withholding evidence – prosecuting attorneys were purposely withholding evidence that had been requested by defense attorneys. The DOJ was also screening jurors in these cases by religion. AUSA Sunita Doddamani compared pro-life Christians to cult members.
Ethics violations with grant applications – the report found that the Biden DOJ was helping abortion groups secure grant funding.
Sentencing disparity – during the time in question, pro-life defendants saw prosecutors’ requests for an average sentence of 26.8 months. Abortion defendants, however, averaged only 12.3 months in sentencing requests.
Scale of prosecution – during the time in question, the DOJ charged more than 45 pro-life defendants in more than 20 cases using the FACE Act, a significant increase in prosecutions compared to all other modern-day administrations.
As a result of the report, Sanjay Patel, a longtime prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division who specialized in FACE Act prosecution, was terminated. At least three other DOJ employees were also terminated for their roles in these prosecutions.
The DOJ also took corrective action, laying out very specific guidelines for prosecutions under the FACE Act.
Breitbart News reported that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche responded:
"This department will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice. No Department should conduct selective prosecution based on beliefs. The weaponization that happened under the Biden Administration will not happen again, as we restore integrity to our prosecutorial system."
Assistant Attorney General Daniel Burrows added:
"The behavior unearthed in this report is shameful. Lawyers who should have known better withheld evidence, worked to keep committed religious people off juries, and generally allowed the Department of Justice to be used as the enforcement arm of pro-abortion special interests."
This organization was an extremist, militant abortion-rights group that encouraged and carried out firebombings, vandalism, and arson throughout the United States. The group targeted crisis pregnancy centers, a church, and a congressional office.
The first attack took place in May 2022, after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court draft opinion was leaked. That was the case that ultimately led to Roe v. Wade being overturned.
As of early May 2023, there have been more than 80 attacks against pregnancy resource centers and more than 250 attacks against Catholic churches. Jane’s Revenge often took credit for these attacks.
After the ruling was made, Fox News reported that the group claimed:
"Now the leash is off... We promised to take increasingly drastic measures against oppressive infrastructures. Rest assured that we will, and those measures may not come in the form of something so easily cleaned up as fire and graffiti... it's open season, and we know where your operations are."
For the most part, the Biden administration ignored the attacks, dragging its feet, or just outright not investigating the crimes. It surely did not use the zeal with which it went after pro-life supporters and groups.
As an example, CompassCare, a pro-life pregnancy center outside Buffalo run by James Harden, was firebombed and vandalized. Harden provided authorities with video surveillance footage of the attack, as well as what he called a “mountain of other evidence,” but he saw no results. After more than three months with no results, he stated:
"It's Day 106. There have been no arrests. There have been over 50 attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers. And our patience is at an end."
The table below shows the disparity of prosecutions for pro-life and pro-abortion advocates during Biden’s time in office:
| Metric | Pro-Life Defendants | Pro-Abortion Defendants |
|---|---|---|
| Defendants Charged (Biden Era) | 45+ in 20+ cases | 5 total |
| Average Sentence Requested | 26.8 months | 12.3 months |
| Attacks on Facilities (Post-Dobbs) | Targeted for peaceful protests and sidewalk advocacy | 80+ attacks on pregnancy centers, 250+ attacks on Catholic churches |
| Church Attack Prosecutions | N/A | Zero |
| Arrest Tactics | FBI SWAT-style raids, guns drawn, denied self-surrender (e.g., Houck) | Standard processing |
| Evidence Handling | Prosecutors knowingly withheld evidence from defense attorneys | No reported misconduct |
| Jury Selection | Christian jurors flagged for removal based on faith. "Jesus buttons" banned from courtroom. | No reported screening |
| DOJ Coordination with Outside Groups | Planned Parenthood, NAF, and Feminist Majority Foundation compiled dossiers used for warrants and charges | Jane's Revenge largely ignored. "Open season" threat not prosecuted as domestic terrorism. |
| Outcome | Houck: Found NOT GUILTY. Awarded $1M+ settlement. Prosecutors fired. | CompassCare: Firebombed. Provided "mountain of evidence." Day 106: zero arrests. |
This is just another chapter in an ongoing saga of the weaponization of the DOJ. Democrats rail about Trump weaponizing the DOJ, but I proved in a recent deep dive that Trump is merely using a playbook that was put in play and perfected by the Obama administration, then continued by the Biden administration (click here to read that report).
In this case, the weapon of choice was the FACE Act. The system was rigged, and pro-lifers never had a chance. Unfortunately for Biden and Democrats, we now have the receipts to hold them accountable.
