A Philadelphia couple said their daughter, Nevaeh, is alive today because of pro-life advocate Mark Houck, whose home was raided by the FBI late last month.
In a new video, the young couple, Jadda and Markeem, said Houck offered them hope in a moment of despair – right before walking into their abortion appointment, The Daily Wire reports.
“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,’’ Jadda said in a video published by the Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia.
A Catholic, a father and a pro-life advocate, Houck was arrested during an early morning raid by armed FBI agents at his home in Pennsylvania. His lawyers say Houck is a target of political intimidation by the Biden administration and Attorney General Merrick Garland to scare pro-life advocates.
Houck is charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for allegedly pushing an abortion activist who allegedly was harassing his young son last year outside an abortion facility. If convicted, he could face up to 11 years in prison, according to the Daily Wire.
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However, the young couple’s experience with Houck was very different from the Biden administration’s portrayal of him as violent and aggressive. Jadda and Markeem described him as compassionate, non-judgmental and understanding.
Walking up to Planned Parenthood on that cold winter day, Jadda said she felt ashamed and afraid. If Houck had not approached them, she said she would have gone through with the abortion.
“… and I would have been living with regret,” the young mother said. “He was really just trying to get to know us on a deeper level than us just trying to get an abortion, and … it was real easy and quick to open up to him, because it wasn’t a judgmental thing at all.”
Her partner, Markeem, said Houck’s words made an impact “literally before we walked into the doors.”
“He made sure he told us and made us feel like, you got it … and he was right,” the father said. “He opened my eyes to a lot of stuff.”
After the couple chose life, Markeem said Houck and other pro-lifers supported their young family “every step of the way.”
“There are times I can’t think of [Nevaeh] without thinking about y’all,” he said.
The couple named their daughter Nevaeh, or heaven spelled backward, because they believe she is “a gift straight from God.”
“Thank God he was that extra push because she wouldn’t be here,” Markeem said.
Pro-life sidewalk counselors like Houck save thousands of unborn babies from abortion because of the compassion and hope that they offer to mothers and fathers every day outside abortion facilities. However, these peaceful volunteers increasingly have become targets of hostility, violence and now what pro-life advocates say is political intimidation by the Biden administration.
Peter Breen, an attorney with the Thomas More Society who is representing Houck, told the Daily Signal that Garland’s Justice Department ordered the raid on Houck’s home, not the local FBI office or local authorities.
Breen said the department’s actions were “clearly intended to chill pro-life activity outside of abortion clinics,” and his office is getting calls from other pro-life sidewalk counselors who are worried about being raided, too, even though their work is peaceful and compassionate.
This week, Live Action News broke news that the FBI raided the home of another pro-life advocate, Chet Gallagher, of Tennessee. Gallagher is facing charges for participating in a “rescue” last year at the Carafem abortion facility in Mt. Juliet, where he and other pro-lifers prayed and sang in a hallway of a building that houses multiple medical offices and the abortion facility.
