PHILADELPHIA — The arrest of a prominent Catholic activist on charges he assaulted a Planned Parenthood volunteer outside a Philadelphia clinic has sparked a standoff between the antiabortion movement and the federal government, and battle lines are being drawn over the wider significance of the case.
Federal prosecutors have charged Mark Houck — a speaker, author, and cofounder and president of the Catholic ministry the King’s Men — saying he assaulted a 72-year-old patient escort in October outside of the Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center, a reproductive clinic near the intersection of 12th and Locust Streets.
But within hours of his arrest on Friday, his wife had publicly disputed the charges, donations for his legal defense began pouring in, and his story has quickly become a cause célèbre on right-wing news sites.
