Congressman Chip Roy wants to repeal a federal law that the Biden administration exploited to try to put pro-life father Mark Houck in prison.
As LifeNews reported, a Philadelphia jury has found pro-life father Mark Houck not guilty on both counts in the case of the bogus charges the Biden administration filed against him.
Houck was facing bogus charges that he violated the federal FACE law when he was helping women outside an abortion center. An abortion business escort accosted and bullied his son and Houck stepped in to stop it – and, in doing so, the older abortion center volunteer fell down. Houck could have faced over a decade in prison if he was found guilty.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act makes it a federal crime to use force with the intent to injure, intimidate and interfere with anyone trying to access either abortion at an abortion business or medical care at a pregnancy center. However, the law is only supposed to be enforced agaisnt someone who is literally preventing access to an abortion business or pregnancy center — not for a minor incident not involving the blockading of an abortion facility.
Now, pro-life Congressman Chip Roy wants to scrap the law in its entirelty because it violates free speech and becaue it has become a political tool for the Biden administration and leftists to target pro-life Americans.
“Justice has been served, but this brazen exercise in intimidation never should have happened. Mark Houck and his eight children never should have been forced to live through an FBI raid or see their father led away in handcuffs,” Roy told Fox News in a statement.
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“Congress must continue oversight of the FACE Act and should consider a full repeal of this eminently abused and clearly weaponized federal usurpation of state police powers. Congress should also take a hard look at the tens of billions we’re giving to the Department of Justice and exactly how those funds are being used,” he added.
In June 2022, Thomas More Society attorneys notified the Biden Department of Justice that the FACE Act does not cover one-on-one altercations like the one involving Houck, which was initiated by the abortion proponent who was harassing Houck’s son.
The DOJ charges go against court precedent. In June 2019, Thomas More Society attorneys won a case in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, establishing that a one-off altercation, like the one in which the Biden Department of Justice is levying two counts against Houck, cannot form the basis for a FACE claim.
Houck faced a maximum sentence of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $350,000 for merely defending his son from being attacked.
However, Houck never blocked access to the abortion center, which is what the law is designed to stop, and the incident was nothing more than a minor scuffle. And the jury in the case agreed.
