Here’s How the Biden Administration Weaponized the FACE Act Against Pro-Life Americans

It was just after 7 am on September 23, 2022. The Houck family was woken up that morning by FBI agents pounding on their door. Mark Houck’s seven young children watched as those agents entered their home and pointed guns at Mark and his wife, Ryan-Marie. Mark Houck was then handcuffed and arrested in front of his family.

What was his crime, you might wonder?

Surely, it must be something horrific, since the FBI raided his home with weapons, right?

No. Mark Houck, a Catholic, was being arrested by the Biden DOJ for the “crime” of praying outside an abortion clinic and protecting his young son from a pro-abortion activist who threatened his son. Houck pushed the man away from his child, and local police and state authorities refused to charge Houck with anything. The abortion activist even tried to sue Houck; that lawsuit failed, too.

The Biden DOJ would not let the case go, however. They decided to arrest Houck and charge him with violating the ‘Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances’ (FACE) Act, which makes it a federal crime to ‘injure, intimidate, and interfere with anyone because that person is a provider of reproductive health care.’

Houck faced up to 11 years behind bars, plus years of probation, and hefty fines of up to $350,000. Fortunately, Houck was acquitted in 2023. But the process is the punishment, and the Houck family was forever changed by the Biden administration’s weaponization of the FACE Act in pursuit of its radical pro-abortion agenda.

We knew that the Biden administration, which oversaw the abolition of any and all guardrails protecting women from the abortion pill, was pro-abortion, but we’re now just learning how deeply and dangerously the Biden administration weaponized the FACE Act to threaten, intimidate, and jail pro-life and religious Americans like Mark Houck.

NEW: The Justice Department just released an 800+ report on how President Joe Biden’s administration weaponized the FACE Act against pro-life Americans and Americans of faith.

It’s worse than we thought. 🧵

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 14, 2026

Buckle up, because this is alarming.

The Biden DOJ partnered with radical pro-abortion activists and groups to target pro-lifers, including tracking them, spying on them, and prosecuting them.

The Biden DOJ relied on information gathered from radical pro-abortion groups to track, prosecute, and snoop on peaceful pro-life protesters, according to emails included in that report.

My colleague Leif lays out some of this in his reporting: https://t.co/es1C81gYy7

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 14, 2026

Here’s more:

President Joe Biden’s administration relied on information gathered from radical pro-abortion groups to track, prosecute, and snoop on peaceful pro-life protesters, shocking emails released Tuesday by the Trump administration show.

The emails show a top Justice Department official referring to an abortion activist as an “MVP” for flagging pro-life protests to prosecute and seeking to track the travel plans of Christian pro-life activists not yet charged with crimes. The emails also reveal pro-abortion organizations providing dossiers to the Biden DOJ with personal information and pictures of pro-life activists who were later arrested by the FBI.

These dossiers contained the information of pro-life activists who were not yet charged with any federal crimes, but were deemed threats by the abortion groups because of their activism. Many of these individuals would later be prosecuted by the Biden administration.

Yesterday, Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanch fired DOJ prosecutor Sanjay Patel, who, during his time working for the Biden administration, referred to Michelle Davidson of the National Abortion Federation (NAF) as an “MVP” for alerting the DOJ about pro-life protests they could prosecute.

Those flaggings usually resulted in “an investigation/prosecution.”

One email shows a DOJ prosecutor, Sanjay Patel, referring to @NatAbortionFed‘s Michelle Davidson as an “MVP” for flagging pro-life protests to prosecute, “which usually result in an investigation/prosecution.”

Patel was fired yesterday by Todd Blanche for weaponizing the FACE… pic.twitter.com/gQTc8zMwNe

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 14, 2026

In an email from Patel, he wrote, “Michelle has been a wonderful contact for me as it relates to FACE Act investigations. She has been an MVP bringing incidents to my attention, often in real-time, which usually result in an investigation/prosecution.”

The NAF also provided the Biden administration with dossiers on pro-lifers who were later targeted and arrested by the FBI.

The emails also show how pro-abortion organizations like NAF were providing dossiers to the Biden DOJ with personal information and pictures of pro-life activists who were later arrested by the FBI.

For example: pic.twitter.com/lhKzWI5BwB

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 14, 2026

If that wasn’t enough, the DOJ put together biased questionnaires for juries involved with FACE Act cases. In this case, jurors were asked whether they had received any news from The Daily Wire, Matt Walsh, or the Daily Signal — outlets that all covered Biden’s weaponization of the FACE Act.

Here’s a jury questionnaire that the DOJ put together for one of the FACE Act cases involving pro-life defendants Calvin Zastrow, Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Eva Edl, and Eva Zastrow.

Notice how the jurors are asked if they get their news from… pic.twitter.com/Fo5u8dXrya

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 14, 2026

Paul Vaughn was another pro-life father who was arrested at gunpoint by the FBI. Vaughn, a Tennessee man with 11 children, was arrested in 2022 for protesting outside an abortion clinic.

These are just a few of the examples.

As a reminder, fathers of big families like Mark Houck and Paul Vaughn were arrested at gunpoint in front of their families as part of this effort to target pro-life Americans: https://t.co/ahyuthLIG2

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 14, 2026

Vaughn was convicted on charges. In July 2024, Vaughn was sentenced to three years of supervised release.

The chief legal and strategy officer for NAF even told Chip Roy last September that NAF had no influence over the Biden DOJ’s FACE Act prosecutions. That was clearly a lie.

A major flag here: the chief legal and strategy officer for the @NatAbortionFed told Chip Roy that she had pretty much no influence over the Biden FACE Act prosecutions.

As this report shows – NAF was pivotal to those prosecutions.https://t.co/qQxHXsMY9M

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 14, 2026

The Biden DOJ also engaged in “inappropriate conduct and comments,” including referring to Christian pro-life views as “culty” and even attacking defendants’ beliefs in the courtroom.

The DOJ even whined about a “very Catholic magistrate” who was on duty.

For example: AUSAs tried to screen jurors “referred to Christian pro-life views as ‘culty’ and lambasted the defendants’ beliefs in the courtroom.”

They also complained about ending up with a “very Catholic magistrate on duty this week.” pic.twitter.com/aNHU5fhrl9

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 14, 2026

“The Biden DOJ prosecutors knowingly withheld evidence that defense counsel requested to prepare an affirmative defense,” the document reads. “The Biden DOJ prosecutors falsely claimed not to have such information available. In United States v. Gallagher (Middle District of Tennessee), defense counsel contacted federal prosecutors to request historical data on FACE Act prosecutions to support their selective prosecution defense. The Task Force Director declined, stating that he did not “keep the[se] kind of records.”

It goes on to say that Biden DOJ prosecutors tried to screen jurors based on religion. “In United States v. Zastrow (Eastern District of Michigan), Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) looked for ways to screen possible jurors based on their conservative or religious views, while not inquiring about liberal counterviews. They referred to Christian pro-life views as ‘culty’ and lambasted the defendant’s beliefs in the courtroom.”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche released this report and said in a statement today that, “This Department will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice. No Department should conduct selective prosecution based on beliefs. The weaponization that happened under the Biden Administration will not happen again, as we restore integrity to our prosecutorial system.”

President Trump pardoned 23 pro-lifers who were unfairly persecuted by the Biden DOJ.

President Donald Trump pardoned many of the pro-life activists who were targeted by the Biden DOJ shortly after he took office, freeing a number of them from prison.

“They should not have been prosecuted,” Trump said as he signed that executive order. https://t.co/TNJt98wLsG

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 14, 2026

Keep in mind that the Democrats did this during the Biden administration, and they have made it explicitly clear that they intend to weaponize the government against members of the Trump administration, as well as any business, school, or organization that — in their words — “bent the knee” to the President. One Democrat even proposed banning Trump voters from the Internet for four years.

And while they say and do this, they accuse President Trump and Republicans of “weaponizing” the government. That is not true. It is Democrats who have weaponized the government. They did it against pro-lifers under Biden, and they’ll do it again if they get back into power.

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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