Abortion and FACE Act Enforcement

The Justice Department under President Trump agreed in February 2026 to pay anti-abortion activist Mark Houck just over $1 million to settle his civil suit arising from a high-profile 2022 FBI raid and subsequent prosecution under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Houck, who was acquitted by a Philadelphia jury of FACE Act charges after being charged in 2022 following an incident that his lawyers said involved roughly 25 agents at his home, had sued the government over the raid and alleged excessive force; a Bush-appointed federal judge later dismissed that lawsuit with prejudice, but the DOJ settled while an appeal was pending and Houck's counsel withdrew the appeal after the payout. The settlement is noted in the Trump DOJ's Weaponization Working Group report but the report omitted the seven-figure amount and the prior dismissal at the district-court level; Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has defended the department's actions publicly, saying the DOJ "will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice."