A young couple from Philadelphia says Mark Houck, a DOJ-targeted pro-life activist facing 11 years behind bars, helped them choose life for their baby girl, Nevaeh.
Houck was arrested by some 20 FBI agents at his rural Pennsylvania home and hit with charges under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act last month for allegedly pushing an abortion escort last year.
Notably, local authorities never pursued charges against Houck, and a private criminal complaint over the alleged incident was dropped when the accuser neglected to show up to court.
“I had one hand on the door about to go into Planned Parenthood, and then Mark stopped us and he was like, ‘You guys don’t have to do this,’’ the young mother told Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia in a video published last month.
The woman said she felt “shame and guilt” when she found out she was pregnant. Though she was uneasy about abortion, she scheduled one at a Planned Parenthood clinic.
Without Houck’s intervention, the mother said, “I really felt like I would have went through with it and I would have been living with regret.”
The young father recalled Houck intervening just before the couple went through the doors of the Planned Parenthood facility. “We talked to him, and he really got through to us, like, literally before we walked into the doors,” he said.
“He was really just trying to get to know us on a deeper level than us just trying to get an abortion, and that’s another reason why it was real easy and quick to open up to him, because it wasn’t a judgmental thing at all,” the mother said of Houck.
“He made sure he told us and made us feel like, you got it … and he was right,” the emotional father said. “He opened my eyes to a lot of stuff.”
The couple said they named their baby Nevaeh, Heaven spelled backward, because they believe the child was sent from God.
“The pro-lifers definitely were there for us every step of the way,” the father added. “There are times I can’t think of [Nevaeh] without thinking about y’all.”
“We don’t even know where we would be without you guys,” the couple said.
Houck has pleaded not guilty to the federal changes, and his legal team says the Catholic pro-lifer is the victim of blatant “political prosecution” by the Biden administration.
Related: New Information Raises More Questions About Federal Arrest Of Pro-Life Father Mark Houck
