(LifeSiteNews) — An activist with the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) said she thinks the FBI intended to intimidate her and her team after two women who identified themselves as FBI agents unexpectedly came to her parents’ front door with questions.
PAAU is a self-identified secular left-wing organization that opposes abortion while supporting transgenderism and radical racial ideology. On its website, PAAU says it’s “committed to radical inclusivity while magnifying secular, leftist, and LGBTQIA+ identifying pro-life voices, especially those belonging to people of color.”
Elise Ketch, 26, began working for PAAU in December. She told The Daily Signal that two women showed up at the front door of her childhood home in the afternoon of April 18, informing her mother Tracy that they were with the FBI and wanted to speak with her daughter.
“She’s not in any trouble,” said Ashley Roberts, one of the FBI agents, in a Ring video doorbell recording shared with The Daily Signal. “We just have some information we need to ask her about.”
As recorded in the footage, Tracy Ketch informed Roberts and the other agent, Kathleen Brown, that her daughter no longer lived at that address. The agents then asked for the young woman’s phone number or address.
Tracy called her daughter, informing her that she had “two FBI agents at the front door.” Ketch urged her mom not to “tell them anything.”
It’s unclear what the agents were after, though they may have been seeking information related to one of Ketch’s colleagues.
As LifeSiteNews previously reported, PAAU made headlines last year after reportedly discovering the bodies of five late-term babies outside a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic. Police found the bodies of “The Five” at PAAU activist Lauren Handy’s apartment after the FBI raided her home and arrested her last year on Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act charges connected with a “traditional rescue” she conducted with eight other activists in October 2020.
UPDATE (01/30/23): Mark Houck has been AQUITTED on both charges!
Thanks be to God LifeSiteNews can report that Mark Houck has been found "Not Guilty" on all counts today.
In a statement to LifeSiteNews, Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania spokeswoman and Houck family friend Ashley Garecht said “We rejoice and celebrate that Mark Houck has been found not guilty on all counts.”
“This case was always about a father’s right to protect his son, and never had anything to do with the FACE act,” she said. “We are grateful to the judge for his integrity, and to the jurors for their thoughtful deliberations. We are grateful to Mark’s attorneys who labored so diligently in his defense. And we are grateful for all of those who surrounded and supported Mark and his family in prayer through this challenging ordeal.”
“Most of all we praise and thank God for his protection and provision,” Garecht added. “To Him be all the glory.”
The Thomas More Society is set to hold a press conference today on the 6th street side of the James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse, 601 Market Street, Philadelphia.
Monday’s verdict came after a tense weekend wait following a deadlocked jury on Friday.
Several hours into Monday’s deliberations after the jury reconvened, an alternate was chosen to replace one of the jurors. Just before 3:00 p.m. EST, the jury delivered its verdict, acquitting Houck on both charges.
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Mark Houck, a pro-life Catholic father of 7, became the latest victim of an FBI raid and arrest on the morning of Friday September 23 — for supposed “FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act” violations — at his rural home as his children looked on “screaming.”
The arrest and raid stems from an altercation with a Planned Parenthood worker.
According to Mark’s wife Ryan-Marie, a “pro-abortion protester” would verbally harrass Mark's 12-year old son — hurling vulgar and derogatory statements.
When the protestor encroached in the boy's space, Mark defended his son. At that point, “Mark shoved him away from his child, and the guy fell back,” Ryan-Marie recounts.
The protestor was not injured, but he tried to sue Mark Houck for the assault but his case was thrown out of court in the early summer.
WE CANNOT ALLOW THE LEFT TO HARRASS PRO-LIFE ADVOCATES THIS WAY!
It's vital to stand in solidarity with a pro-family and pro-life man being unjustly persecuted - please SIGN & SHARE our message of support now.
In case you hadn't caught on already, the satanic Biden administration is waging war on Christians. https://t.co/E6ChpZVDYW
— Michael (X) Knowles ✊ (@michaeljknowles) September 24, 2022
The description of this arrest sounds like it took place in a totalitarian state. A tragic unraveling of Justice in America. https://t.co/e3vEID7E39
— Bishop J. Strickland (@Bishopoftyler) September 25, 2022
If convicted, Houck faces up to a maximum of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $350,000, according to the Justice Department.
Additional conservative pro-life leaders have weighed in — this is why we need your support ASAP.
“Just in the last few days we’ve seen some pretty glaring examples of what appear to be instances of DOJ [Department of Justice] overreach. You’ve got a Catholic father of seven who formed a group designed to encourage young men to be faithful to their commitments, arrested in front of his seven children just recently. You’ve got all these instances of overreach. It’s deeply concerning to us all. These are all things we’re gonna be looking into.” — US Senator Mike Lee
Tell the Houck family that you stand by them!
SIGN: We stand with pro-life Catholic dad of 7 raided by Biden’s FBI
Please share this petition widely. Let's stand in solidarity with Mark Houck and his family.
Thank you.
READ: Dead babies found in DC apartment may have been victims of infanticide following abortion attempts
Handy was indicted last year and faces up to 11 years in prison for allegedly “creat[ing] a blockade at” the abortion facility “to prevent the clinic from providing, and patients from receiving, reproductive health services.”
“My colleague at Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, Lauren Handy, is indicted under the FACE Act and is being prosecuted by the federal government,” Ketch told The Daily Signal. She said “it’s plausible that these FBI agents aimed to collect information from me to help build their case against her.” She also suggested that the “true motive” behind the action was intimidation.
“While they reassured my mother that I was not in trouble, it’s also possible that they see me as a threat due to my pro-life activism and intended to investigate me,” she said. “Yet, to my knowledge, they never attempted to follow up with me or my attorney, so I believe the FBI’s true motive behind their visit to my parents’ home was to intimidate me and my team.”
The FBI didn’t respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment, according to the report.
The federal law enforcement agents’ visit to Ketch’s parents’ home comes amid an ongoing wave of troubling FBI activities targeting pro-life activists and Catholics that has generated outrage from conservatives and triggered congressional interest.
As extensively reported by LifeSiteNews, the FBI carried out guns-drawn raids on pro-life Catholic fathers Mark Houck and Paul Vaughn last year. Houck was fully acquitted of both FACE act charges in January. The Biden administration’s DOJ also indicted pro-life Catholic priest Fr. Fidelis Moscinski on federal charges and hit 11 pro-life activists, including an 87-year-old survivor of a communist concentration camp, with federal charges for a peaceful protest at a Nashville, Tennessee, abortion facility.
Moreover, a since-retracted internal document that was leaked from the Richmond, Virginia, FBI field office directed federal resources to surveil so-called “radical-traditionalist Catholics,” naming abortion as one of the public policy issues that the agency thought might connect such Catholics with certain violent extremist groups.
RELATED: FBI whistleblower releases docs showing agency is surveilling ‘Radical’ Latin Mass Catholics
The actions by federal law enforcement officials against Catholic and pro-lifers have not gone unnoticed by Republican lawmakers.
Earlier this year, the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives created a “Weaponization of Government” Select Committee to investigate alleged instances of FBI and other federal intelligence agencies’ meddling in domestic politics.
The committee’s priorities include investigation into the federal government’s use of the FACE Act to arrest pro-lifers. Lawmakers have argued that the Biden administration has selectively enforced the law to punish pro-lifers while failing to prosecute pro-abortion activists.
During a House judiciary committee hearing Tuesday, pro-lifer Mark Houck testified that he believes the guns-drawn FBI raid he endured had been carried out with the intention “to humiliate me, to scare my children, and to instill fear in pro-life America.”
This week, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene introduced a resolution to introduce articles of impeachment against FBI Director Christopher Wray for overseeing the FBI’s “Soviet-style tactics… against normal Americans.”