Pro-lifer Mark Houck warns New Jersey law could criminalize prayer outside of abortion facilities

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, signed legislation Aug. 20 creating criminal penalties for interfering with access to “reproductive health care services,” prompting criticism from CatholicVote’s Mark Houck, who warned that the law could be used against pro-lifers who pray or counsel women outside abortion facilities. The law took effect immediately.

“This is nothing more than the FACE Act 2.0 at the state level,” Houck said in an Aug. 22 FOX News interview with Kayleigh McEnany.

Under the new law, a person can face criminal charges for intentionally injuring, threatening, intimidating, or physically blocking someone from obtaining or providing reproductive health care. The law classifies interference as a fourth-degree crime, punishable by up to 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The offense rises to a third-degree crime, punishable by three to five years in prison, if the victim suffers bodily injury, and a second-degree crime, punishable by five to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $150,000, if the victim suffers significant or serious bodily injury.

Sherrill signed the bill at a Planned Parenthood facility in Montclair as a group of women stood behind her smiling and clapping. 

“No one should fear intimidation or violence for seeking health care,” Sherrill wrote in an Aug. 21 X post. 

Houck argued in the interview that the law is a “violation of our rights, our God-given rights to exercise the First Amendment.”

He compared the measure to the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, commonly known as the FACE Act, which critics accused the Biden administration of selectively enforcing against pro-lifers. 

Houck, who joined CatholicVote’s development team in August, gained national attention in 2021 after a confrontation with a volunteer escort outside a Pennsylvania abortion facility, where Houck had been praying with his 12-year-old son. Houck pushed the escort after the man allegedly verbally harassed and intimidated his son. 

The Biden administration arrested Houck in 2022 and charged him with violating the FACE Act. A federal jury acquitted him in January 2023. Houck and his wife later sued the previous administration’s Justice Department and FBI over his arrest and prosecution, and the Trump administration awarded Houck more than $1 million to settle the lawsuit.

Calling the New Jersey measure an “unjust law,” Houck argued that it is “not really a law at all.”

“I’m sad for it, but I’m not surprised by it,” he told McEnany during the interview. “Unfortunately, it’s now going to be used against pro-lifers and people who have a great degree of concern in their heart to come out and pray and help people.”

Houck warned that authorities could portray pro-life advocates as “terrorists” under the law and subject them to harassment or intimidation for “trying to help people get all the information they need” before women decide whether they want to go through with an abortion. 

During the interview, McEnany cited research from the Charlotte Lozier Institute indicating that nearly 87% of women who had abortions felt some degree of pressure or coercion from others. 

Houck said women often feel pressured to have abortions because they believe they have no other option. Frequently, he said, “it’s because of a man who’s failed them” and threatens to leave unless they undergo an abortion. He added that financial and emotional pressures drive some 90% of abortion decisions.

“But if they feel like they have a whole movement behind them, you know, we can have saves,” Houck said. “In the last 20-plus years that I've been doing this, Kayleigh, we've had over 100 saves of babies, and I've held these babies in my arms. It's a fantastic thing.”