Antiabortion advocates say federal charges against one of their own won’t slow their activism

Andrea Fiorillo, 58, is religious and an avid antiabortion activist who protests in front of her local Planned Parenthood in West Chester at least once a week. She describes those protests as peaceful and an effort to persuade people considering abortion to continue their pregnancy.

But the September arrest of Catholic Bucks County activist Mark Houck over an incident that took place in front of a Philadelphia abortion clinic has sent a chill among people like Fiorillo and galvanized the antiabortion right.

“If you feel this is murder, which I do,” said Fiorillo, “if I want to protest, I don’t want to be arrested.”

» READ MORE: The arrest of a prominent Bucks County activist is rallying the Catholic antiabortion right

Fiorillo was among 75 antiabortion advocates who gathered in front of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Friday, demanding charges against Houck, cofounder and president of the Catholic ministry the King’s Men, be dropped while vowing to continue intervention efforts at abortion clinics.

Speakers included prominent antiabortion activists such as Philadelphia radio host Dom Giordano and former U.S. Senate candidate Kathy Barnette. Houck’s wife attended but did not speak. All railed against what they characterized as biased enforcement and an aggressive arrest at Houck’s Kintnersville home.

A spokesperson for the FBI’s Philadelphia field office disputed the account, saying the arrest was “in line with standard practices.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania declined to comment on the matter.

At Friday’s rally, Houck’s lead attorney Peter Breen pushed back on claims that his client had assaulted a 72-year-old patient escort outside of Philadelphia’s Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center. Breen told the crowd the volunteer had been harassing Houck’s 12-year-old son.

“I’m sitting here going, ‘What in the world do these folks think trying to charge us when Mark and his son were 50 feet away from where that escort was supposed to be?’ ” Breen told the crowd.

Some attendees who try to talk to patients on their way into abortion clinics worry Houck’s arrest might mean more aggressive enforcement for them.

Under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, often called FACE, it’s a federal felony to injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services.

Terrisa Bukovinac, who came to the protest from Washington, and identifies as a progressive, atheist, and antiabortion activist, said her organization, Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, will hand out roses at clinics in a last-ditch appeal to patients. Bukovinac said she’s been arrested at least five times. In July, she made national headlines after she was sentenced to four days in jail for trespassing at a clinic in Virginia. She was one of the attendees who called for the end of FACE.

“Protecting people from being murdered should not be an arrestable offense,” she said. “It is our obligation to save these children.”

The crowd also took aim at authorities for not finding the culprits of alleged vandalism at Catholic churches and pregnancy centers, like at Hope Pregnancy Center in June. Some of the Francisville clinic’s windows were smashed and another graffitied. Philadelphia police could not immediately offer additional details on the investigation.

According to the Department of Justice, the FACE Act is not about abortion and also protects antiabortion pregnancy-counseling services and other pregnancy-support facilities that provide reproductive health care. Antiabortion advocates say the alleged incidents against antiabortion centers should lead to FACE Act charges, but the department isn’t enforcing the law equally.

For now, antiabortion advocates say they plan to continue raising money for Houck — more than $360,000 to date — and drawing attention to Houck’s case in an effort to get the charges dropped. They touted a letter U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey and 11 other Republican senators sent to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland last month demanding more details regarding the arrest and charges.

Before ending with a final prayer Friday, the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, told the crowd they had a target on their backs because of President Joe Biden’s administration, which has vowed to protect abortion access after the fall of Roe v. Wade. Mahoney made a call to action ahead of the November midterms.

“We’re only one federal election away from seeing Roe v. Wade codified,” he said, “... which would put us in a worse position than before Roe was overturned.”