Mark Houck awarded seven-figure settlement in lawsuit against DOJ

Mark Houck, the Pennsylvania father of nine and pro-life advocate whose 2022 arrest made national headlines, has won a seven-figure settlement in federal court.

Shawn Carney, President of 40 Days for Life, announced the settlement on April 9, calling it a “huge legal victory for free speech.” Forty Days for Life’s Institute of Law & Justice represented Houck in the lawsuit against the Justice Department.

“Mark’s family has been awarded over a million dollars for what they went through,” Carney said in a video statement.

Going “on offense, and to say we’re not going to stand for this from our government, and to sue them, and for them to settle … is a huge, huge victory,” he said.

The ruling marks the end of a legal journey that began with an incident at a Philadelphia Planned Parenthood facility in October 2021.

Houck was praying on the sidewalk, accompanied by his son, when an abortion clinic escort confronted him and began making “crude … inappropriate and disgusting” comments, Houck’s wife Ryan-Marie told Life News in 2022. Houck’s attorneys would later describe the man’s actions as extremely aggressive.

After the clinic escort entered the 12-year-old’s “personal space,” Ryan-Marie said, Houck pushed the man away in order to protect his son. The man fell to the ground but was not seriously injured, a family spokesman told Catholic News Agency in 2022, saying he required “only a Band-Aid on his finger.”

An initial attempt to prosecute Houck was dismissed by local authorities when the clinic escort failed to appear at the hearing.

A year later, on Sept. 23, 2022, heavily armed FBI agents banged on the Houcks’ door in a pre-dawn raid, arresting Houck and taking him away in shackles as his children screamed in terror.

Houck was charged with intimidating and shoving the clinic escort and thus violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. He faced up to 11 years in federal prison and up to $350,000 in fines if convicted.

Houck was “alleged to have twice assaulted a man because he was a volunteer reproductive health clinic escort,” a Justice Department press release said. However, in January 2023, after less than an hour of deliberation, a federal jury acquitted him on all counts.

The Houcks subsequently sued the Justice Department and the FBI for malicious and retaliatory prosecution, abuse of process, false arrest, and assault.

During the raid, agents wore armored vests, ballistic helmets, and shields, the lawsuit said, and were equipped with a battering ram and a crowbar. Law enforcement officers were stationed around the Houck property, crouching behind their vehicles with weapons drawn. Even after Houck surrendered peacefully, agents kept their weapons trained on the couple, the lawsuit said.

After the dramatic raid, Ryan-Marie experienced multiple miscarriages and suffered panic attacks, the lawsuit alleged. The couple’s children had nightmares and difficulty sleeping. Houck lost speaking engagements and business opportunities and saw his professional reputation “tarnished.” He suffered severe anxiety, the complaint said.

When a judge dismissed the lawsuit in March 2025, they took the case to the Third District Court of Appeals. The case has now resulted in a seven-figure settlement.

In a statement, 40 Days for Life said the outcome “marks a significant rebuke of the DOJ’s conduct under the Biden administration and underscores growing concerns about the weaponization of federal law enforcement against pro-life Americans.”

Carney called the case “the biggest example of Biden’s DOJ being held accountable for targeting and persecuting pro-life Americans.”

“We were honored to represent Mark,” he added, expressing hope the case would “secure justice and restore confidence that pro-life Americans can go out and pray without fear of their government.”

Houck had volunteered for 40 Days for Life since 2007. The international organization, which coordinates twice-yearly vigils outside abortion facilities, has saved more than 26,000 babies, its website says.