Fuck that guy
“Mark’s goal wasn’t to interfere with a man who was providing reproductive health services,” defense lawyer Brian J. McMonagle said at the time. “He was trying to protect a 12-year-old boy who only wanted to pray with his dad.”
I’m not a parent, so I’m not sure if a 12 year old belongs at a protest of any choice of cause. I feel the likelihood of things getting heated is high enough that it doesn’t seem like a safe scenario to place your child. I also don’t know why a 12 year old would want to be at something like this to begin with. It comes off like using your child as a prop in your own political beliefs. If people claim to be against “indoctrination” it seems an odd thing to subject your child to something like this, especially if, as he claims, there were previous incident with Houck and this worker before.
Despite his acquittal, Houck contended in his lawsuit Monday that he and his family continue to suffer.
His wife lost three pregnancies to miscarriage in the last year, he said — events he blames on the stress of his brush with the law. His seven children, he maintained, continue to struggle with anxiety and trouble sleeping.
I’m not going to say anything bad about the wife of somebody I disagree with, and I feel bad for her this has become public information. I also feel it isn’t very compassionate to deliberately put yourself in situations like this for political grandstanding while your wife is trying to have a baby. Again, not a good look to put looking for a fight to win political points above your family. Especially as this man obviously considers the lives of unborn children to have paramount importance.
It seems like he’s talking out both sides of his mouth to loudly profess the importance of family while taking steps to knowingly subject your family to emotional pain and potential physical injury. I’m again left baffled why people choose to vote for someone who doesn’t live to the very values they wish to impose on others.
I’ve seen a major car dealership here plastered with his signs before the election and a few other businesses, and just like those businesses that continue to cover their buildings or company vehicles with Trump banners after everything, if they want their politics to be associated with their business publicly, I’ll help them abide by that by staying away from them.
Playing devil’s advocate here but every Planned Parenthood I’ve seen has protestors just about everyday. They stand around with stupid signs and 99.9% of the time, nothing else happens. While I don’t agree with them, I don’t think bringing a 12 year old is a risky move.
Thank you, I went back and rechecked the timeline of events, and it seems the 2 incidents between Love and Houck happened on the same day. I had misremembered them as occurring on two separate days.
From the article I linked, it sounds like Houck was there to talk with women leaving the clinic, and to me that still seems a bit inappropriate. If they were just there holding up signs or something, I could be persuaded that having the kid there is not horrible. I feel that would be within his rights as a parent, even if I don’t support his cause. But this seems like him and his son were having direct contact with individual patients. I don’t think anyone wants a preteen boy involved in their personal medical affairs, let along women’s reproductive health. For Houck to do it himself seems like it is within his legal rights to try and provide what he feels is counseling, but to directly engage with patients seems off to me.
To be totally fair, I think Love was also legally allowed to say what he did to Houck, but I also feel it was not professional, especially if he also directed things to the kid. It’s not something he should have been assaulted for, but I think that was in poor taste as well. I get he’s probably had it up to here with guys like Houck, but you still should keep your cool at work. What he was saying was certainly not calming down the situation or being a professional representative for his workplace.
Both men really seemed to act inappropriately, and both parties should call this a wash and move on. Houck seem to just want more PR from it, and I don’t feel anything Love would gain from this would be worth the hassle and expense.
