Pro-life activist Mark Houck won a settlement against the Department of Justice nearly four years after the FBI raided his home.
Houck, who received over $1 million, was raided in 2022 and charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act by the Biden administration. The settlement was announced by 40 Days for Life.
40 Days for Life CEO Shawn Carney said the settlement was “a bigger victory for the pro-life movement at large” and “a huge victory for free speech,” as well as “a huge victory for all Americans who want our right to speak our minds peacefully in a law-abiding way without fear of our own government.”
Houck and his wife sued the DOJ in 2023. The $1.1 million lawsuit argued that the pro-life activist was hit with “malicious prosecution.” According to the complaint, the couple’s children “have also suffered immense emotional trauma and physical manifestations of stress that Mrs. Houck has carried alone while her husband was away during his imprisonment and prosecution.”
President Donald Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists in 2025. “Twenty-three people were prosecuted. They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people,” he said. “They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor, to sign this.”
Upon hearing that some of the protesters were in prison, Trump shook his head and said, “Ridiculous.”
Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy later reintroduced a bill to repeal the FACE Act. Hearing reports of the pro-life pardons, Roy said the activists were “singled out and targeted by their government solely because of their beliefs.”
