# JOHN-HENRY WESTEN: I Met and Prayed With the Pro-Life Leader Arrested by the Biden Gestapo By John-Henry Westen · Published 2022-10-07 · Opinion › Faith & Family · https://humanevents.com/opinion/john-henry-westen-i-met-and-prayed-with-the-pro-life-leader-arrested-by-the-biden-gestapo > Mark Houck is a regular, pro-life husband and father who was targeted by the FBI because the Biden regime considers pro-lifers enemies of the state. When President Joe Biden sent his FBI stormtroopers to execute a SWAT-style raid on a pro-life Catholic father and pro-life leader, Mark Houck, in front of his seven young kids, we learned that the raid on our pro-life and pro-family values had officially reached our front door. I’m one of the co-founders of [*LifeSiteNews*](https://www.lifesitenews.com/), Editor-in-Chief at the news agency that [broke](https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/fbi-raids-home-of-catholic-pro-life-speaker-author-with-guns-drawn-as-his-terrified-kids-watch/?utm_source=featured-news&utm_campaign=usa) the Sept. 23rd [viral](https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/lifesitenews-report-on-the-fbi-targeting-a-pro-life-catholic-dad-of-7-has-spread-like-wildfire/?utm_source=top_news&utm_campaign=canada) [story](https://humanevents.com/2022/09/24/bidens-heavily-armed-fbi-raids-pro-life-activists-home-traumatizes-wife-seven-young-children) about the Christian father and pro-life leader, Mark Houck, just hours after the incident occurred. Wednesday, I had the amazing opportunity to [meet](https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/john-henry-westen-prays-with-pro-life-dad-mark-houck-following-shocking-fbi-raid/?utm_source=top_news&utm_campaign=usa) the Houck family in person, pray with them, and draw inspiration from their amazing strength and faith. Mark has a big heart for the pro-life movement. As soon as I arrived at the Houck residence, Mark approached me and embraced me as a brother. In truth, we are: we’re brothers in Christ. [Watch on Rumble](https://rumble.com/embed/v1jbi1e/?pub=4) Together, in the stillness of the Houck front yard, just recently occupied by FBI agents, we prayed the rosary together. We prayed for our friends in the pro-life movement, for all expectant mothers, for their children — and all those children lost to abortion. We also prayed for our persecutors — those who hate us — just as Christ commanded. Radical prosecutors with the Biden administration’s highly politicized Department of Justice claim Houck violated the [Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/248) when he allegedly pushed an abortion clinic employee twice in October of last year, while Houck was praying in front of the local Planned Parenthood. The FACE Act makes it a felony to use force to intimidate, injure, or obstruct pro-life or pro-abortion protestors or abortion facility workers, or to obstruct or destroy abortion facilities or pro-life pregnancy centers. Even though local charges were pressed — and thrown out — against Mark, the Biden administration’s radical DOJ picked up the charges, leading to the Sept. 23 dawn raid that brought dozens of heavily-armed federal agents to the Houck family’s front door. “\[T\]hey had big, huge rifles pointed at Mark and pointed at me and kind of pointed throughout the house,” Ryan-Marie told *LifeSite*. “The kids were all just screaming. It was all just very scary and traumatic.” This incident quickly became national news. Republican lawmakers, including [U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri](https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/josh-hawley-demands-answers-from-biden-doj-after-swat-style-raid-on-pro-life-catholic-speaker/) and [22 congressmen](https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/republican-congressmen-demand-merrick-garland-answer-for-fbi-raid-on-pro-life-dad-mark-houck/) , demanded the DOJ answer for the unprecedented action. This is a faithful pro-life activist who’s being treated like a domestic terrorist. And yet, it was such a blessing to meet and pray with Mark and his beautiful family, who have been so cruelly harassed by the Biden regime’s gestapo. But make no mistake, Mark Houck could have been any one of us. A regular, pro-life husband and father was targeted by the FBI because the Biden regime considers pro-lifers enemies of the state. In just the past few weeks and months, the politicized FBI has carried out a series of raids against conservative Americans, including the former president. In August, the FBI raided the Mar-a-Lago home of [former President Donald Trump](https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-trump-says-large-group-of-fbi-agents-are-raiding-his-mar-a-lago-home/?utm_source=news&utm_campaign=usa) , and last month executed their disgusting raid against Mark Houck. Also in September, the FBI served search warrants or subpoenas against [dozens of Trump allies](https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/steve-bannon-fbi-raids-35-trump-allies-as-biden-admin-steps-up-attacks-on-maga-republicans/?utm_source=featured-news&utm_campaign=usa) , and indicted pro-life Catholic priest [Fr. Fidelis](https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/fbi-charges-pro-life-priest-with-violating-abortion-access-law-one-week-after-mark-houck-raid/) on federal charges. Just this week, the DOJ slammed [11 pro-life activists](https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/11-pro-lifers-charged-with-federal-crimes-for-peacefully-protesting-at-abortion-clinic/?utm_source=featured-news&utm_campaign=usa) , including an 87-year-old survivor of a communist concentration camp, with federal charges for peacefully protesting at an abortion clinic in Tennessee. *LifeSiteNews* is covering these developments extensively, and they should concern any freedom-loving pro-life conservative. And yet, almost because of this latest incident, there’s hope. Mark Houck set an example for all of us to be strong in the face of persecution. Mark has reached so many people through his self-sacrificing advocacy for the pro-life movement. Just this week, a young couple announced they [chose life](https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/in-touching-video-young-couple-who-chose-life-thank-god-for-mark-houcks-intervention/) for their preborn baby thanks to Houck’s sidewalk counseling efforts. Wednesday, pro-lifers rallied in Washington, D.C. to demand that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland [be impeached](https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/watch-pro-life-activists-gather-outside-doj-to-demand-merrick-garland-be-impeached/?utm_source=featured-news&utm_campaign=usa) for overseeing the FBI’s terroristic raids on ordinary pro-life Americans. And so, as we look with a realistic eye at the political and religious persecution being waged against conservatives and Christians by the Biden administration, let’s not give up hope. Like the Houck family, let’s continue to fight for freedom, for truth, and for life.