Prominent Bucks County antiabortion activist Mark Houck sues over his arrest for scuffle with Planned Parenthood volunteer

A prominent Bucks County Catholic activist and former candidate for Congress is suing the federal government, saying he was unjustly prosecuted as part of a wider Justice Department campaign targeting those with antiabortion views.

The suit from Mark Houck, who lost a Republican primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick earlier this year, comes 15 months after a federal jury acquitted him on charges alleging he had assaulted a Planned Parenthood volunteer in an effort to intimidate workers and patients outside a clinic in Center City.

In court papers Monday, Houck described that case as “a result of a faulty and malicious investigation” — one that cost him financially and left his wife and seven children, also named as plaintiffs, emotionally distraught.

“FBI investigative officers acted deliberately to fabricate probable cause in order to indict, arrest, and charge Mr. Houck with a crime they knew he did not commit,” his attorneys wrote in the filing. “Mr. Houck [was] targeted without probable cause and because of his beliefs.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia, which prosecuted Houck’s case and will defend the government against his suit, declined to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday.

But Houck, 50, could face long odds in court. Federal agents enjoy broad immunity protections, with some notable exceptions, for actions taken as part of their official roles.

Notably, Houck’s suit — which seeks damages for malicious prosecution, false arrest, assault, and excessive force — does not name any of the FBI agents who investigated him as defendants but does bring claims against several local law enforcement officers who participated in the September 2022 predawn raid that ended in his arrest.

The circumstances surrounding that arrest — in which dozens of armed law enforcement officers descended upon Houck’s home in Kintnersville on Sept. 22, 2022 — have drawn the ire of right-wing media and Republican politicians who argue Houck was treated like a violent criminal despite volunteering to surrender to authorities if he was charged with a crime.

The FBI has challenged Houck’s account of his arrest as “inaccurate” and described agents’ conduct as “professional” and “in line with standard practices.”

But in his suit Monday, his lawyers described the incident as “a shocking display of the political animus against the pro-life movement harbored at the highest levels of the Department of Justice.”

That hostility, they maintain, continued through Houck’s trial last year, in which he was accused of twice violating the FACE Act — a federal law that makes it a crime to injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone providing abortion services.

The charges stemmed from a series of October 2022 encounters between Houck and a 72-year-old Planned Parenthood volunteer, Bruce Love, outside the organization’s Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center in Center City.

Prosecutors contended Houck — a frequent presence outside the clinic — twice shoved Love and knocked him to the ground as he attempted to escort two patients into the clinic.

But at trial, Houck’s defense team convinced jurors that the dispute between the men wasn’t so clear-cut.

In the months leading up to their altercation, Planned Parenthood executives had repeatedly admonished Love for engaging with antiabortion activists, like Houck, who routinely gathered outside the clinic — a violation of the nonprofit’s code of conduct for its volunteers.

What’s more, several witnesses described Love harassing Houck and his 12-year-old son, who was with him protesting outside the clinic that day, suggesting that they “go home and masturbate” instead or focus their attention on “pedophile priests.”

The jury took less than three hours to find Houck not guilty.

“Mark’s goal wasn’t to interfere with a man who was providing reproductive health services,” defense lawyer Brian J. McMonagle said at the time. “He was trying to protect a 12-year-old boy who only wanted to pray with his dad.”

Despite his acquittal, Houck contended in his lawsuit Monday that he and his family continue to suffer.

His wife lost three pregnancies to miscarriage in the last year, he said — events he blames on the stress of his brush with the law. His seven children, he maintained, continue to struggle with anxiety and trouble sleeping.

For his own part, Houck says he has lost out on speaking engagements and other business opportunities in the two years since his arrest. And yet, in that time, his public profile has only appeared to have grown.

Aside from his congressional campaign against Fitzpatrick earlier this year, he has testified before Congress, made countless appearances on right-wing cable news shows, attended President Joe Biden’s 2022 State of the Union address as a guest of U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa.), and raised more than $400,000 from a crowdfunding campaign launched to help him cover his legal expenses.

His legal costs for his criminal trial were covered by the Thomas More Society, a conservative Roman Catholic law firm. Houck said earlier this year that he had invested the money donated by others into a trust for his children.

“It was there to help … provided I would go off to prison or the government would continue to attack me,” Houck said of the fund in a testy exchange caught on video during a February candidate forum. “I don’t know what people expect. Do they expect me to donate to a cause?”

As for his civil suit, it could be months before Houck learns whether a jury will award him another payout.

A judge has not yet scheduled an initial hearing in the case.