Why does the FBI severely overreact to Catholic pro-life protesters for minor infractions while doing practically nothing to apprehend pro-abortion activists who have engaged in violence against Catholics and Catholic churches?
This explains why Bill Donohue twice wrote to Sen. Charles Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asking for a probe or hearing on this issue.
The occasion for doubling down was a letter sent on October 12 by 40 Republican lawmakers to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking him to grant them a hearing on this matter. Donohue’s initial letter to Grassley was sent September 26. He also wrote to these lawmakers, led by Rep. Chip Roy and Sen. Mike Lee, urging them to pursue this issue. Those two letters were sent on October 14.
The occasion for these letters was what happened to Mark Houck on September 23.
Houck is a pro-life activist from Kintnersville, Pennsylvania. He was arrested by some two dozen FBI agents—they came to his house with guns drawn—on grounds that he assaulted an abortion-rights patient escort at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Philadelphia on October 13, 2021. He is being charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE).
Houck says he shoved a man who had been harassing his 12-year-old son in front of the clinic during one of his sidewalk counseling sessions. The charges were dismissed by the District Court in Philadelphia.
Donohue said that “it surely seems that the FBI overreacted in its handling of this matter. Houck had seven children at home as the SWAT team pounded on his door, showing up fully armored, yelling at him to open it.”
Donohue added, “This kind of overreaction for a minor infraction of the law is deeply troubling, and it becomes even more troubling when paired with the underreaction by the Department of Justice when the pro-life side is targeted.”
He said he previously wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland asking him to apprehend and prosecute domestic terrorists who have attacked Catholic individuals and churches, as well as crisis pregnancy centers.
Donohue said, “We have witnessed a rash of vandalism against Catholic churches, firebombings of crisis pregnancy centers (many of which are run by Catholics), Masses being interrupted, illegal protests outside the homes of Catholic Supreme Court Justices, and an attempted murder of one of the Catholic Justices.”
There is something seriously wrong with the leadership of the FBI. A congressional probe is long overdue. Our civil liberties are at stake.
