Ex-Abortion Worker Challenges Illinois Law Targeting Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers

Kathy Lesnoff was looking for a way out. Instead, she found Jesus and a new outlook on life. Now, a state law would force her to violate those convictions.

Kathy Lesnoff is the president and CEO of Mosaic Health, an Illinois-based pregnancy resource center. Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom

The thought of helping women through their pregnancies was once a dream for Kathy Lesnoff.

When she was a young college student aspiring to become a nurse, the miracle of life was a wonder to her, and the birthing process a mystery to be unraveled.

Now, as the president and CEO of Mosaic Health in Illinois, she lives her dream every day by providing pregnant women in need with free services and support. However, thanks to a 2016 law, that dream could be over soon.

The law in question, SB 1564, compels all Illinois health care facilities to refer patients for abortion—even those with moral objections to the procedure.

Ms. Lesnoff is one of several parties in a federal lawsuit challenging the law, which she and her Christian organization hold to be unconstitutional.

“We decided no matter what it took, no matter how long it took, that we were going to fight this,” she told The Epoch Times. “We should not be forced to speak a message that violates our deepest convictions.”

Under Pressure

Although she now identifies as a pro-life Christian, there was a time when Ms. Lesnoff was on the opposite side of the fence.

“At the time, my husband and I were in debt,” she explained. “I was three years into college, and I had a newborn baby, and I was given the opportunity to apply for the position of medical assistant at one of the largest abortion facilities in the Midwest.”

Hoping the well-paid position would help her climb her way out of debt, Ms. Lesnoff accepted the job assisting the facility’s doctors with abortion procedures. It wasn’t the obstetrics nursing job she had always hoped for—in fact, it was the opposite. But her time in college at the height of the women’s liberation movement had softened her on the idea of abortion. And, after all, it was still a position in the medical field, she reasoned.

But Ms. Lesnoff’s new job did little to ease the tension at home. She and her policeman husband were on the brink of divorce, and she found herself sinking into a depression that left her feeling as though there was only one way out. And one night, in a moment of desperation, she decided to take it.

“I attempted to commit suicide by way of my husband’s off-duty revolver,” she recalled. She placed the loaded gun to her temple, but when she pulled the trigger, miraculously, nothing happened.

Lifting the Veil

With nowhere else to turn, she sought help from her mother-in-law, whom she knew to be a strong Christian. And that night, on her mother-in-law’s porch, she decided she wanted to be one, too.

“She just introduced me to the Lord and told me all about what it was to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. So, I gave my heart to the Lord.”

Soon afterward, her husband followed suit, and instead of falling apart, their marriage grew stronger than ever amid their newfound faith.

Still, for three months, Ms. Lesnoff continued working at the abortion clinic.

“And then God allowed me to witness a 23-week abortion.”

At that time, the facility Ms. Lesnoff worked at could only legally perform abortions through the first trimester, or 13 weeks’ gestation. But illegal abortions, she said, were still a regular occurrence.

“We did abortions every single day that were illegal for us. We were doing them at 15, 16 weeks routinely, and those babies would be flushed down the toilet.”

Seeing the toilet bowl where those corpses were flushed would often make Ms. Lesnoff uncomfortable. But it wasn’t until she was required to assist with the dismemberment of a baby at 23 weeks’ gestation that she had finally seen enough.

At 23 weeks—near the end of the second trimester—an unborn baby measures at about 11 inches long and weighs roughly 1 pound. Fingers, toes, and facial features are all formed and easily identified, and the baby even has its own set of unique fingerprints.

“God completely removed the veil and allowed me to see that I was killing babies,” she said. “At six weeks, eight weeks … 16, 23—they were all babies. And so, I left the clinic. I got out.”

Convictions

After leaving her job at the abortion clinic, Ms. Lesnoff said she still felt called to help women who were facing crisis pregnancies, but in a way that affirmed the sanctity of life.

“I just felt like we needed to provide alternatives—love, care, support, and truth—providing medically accurate information to help these women so they can make a choice for life.”

That passion led her to found Mosaic Health, which offers an array of free services to women through its two pregnancy centers, including pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, parenting classes, supplies, adoption referrals, abortion recovery counseling, and abortion pill reversal, among others.

But since the enactment of SB 1564 in 2016, the organization’s ability to continue providing those services in accordance with its pro-life mission has been thrown into question.

The law, which has been on hold since July 2017 due to the lawsuit, would require the Christian organization to refer patients for abortions upon request—something Ms. Lesnoff noted Mosaic Health would never do.

“That would be completely against our deepest convictions,” she said.

The law would also require the organization’s employees to present abortion as a treatment option and promote its alleged benefits to patients. “And we do not believe there are any benefits, as a pro-life organization. There are certainly no benefits to the unborn baby.”

Legal Challenge

With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian legal nonprofit, Ms. Lesnoff filed her lawsuit in September 2016. And in September, after seven years of waiting, she finally got her day in court.

“We’re cautiously optimistic we’ll get a favorable ruling putting this law on permanent hold,” ADF senior counsel Kevin Theriot said.

During arguments, Ms. Lesnoff joined several other pregnancy center directors and doctors in testifying against the law’s requirement that they promote abortion.

“The government can’t coerce pro-life pregnancy centers and the professionals working with them to speak its pro-abortion message, and that’s what’s really going on,” Mr. Theriot said, noting that the U.S. Supreme Court said as much in its 2018 ruling in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra.

In that case, also brought by ADF, the high court struck down a similar law in California that required all facilities offering pregnancy testing and prenatal care to provide clients with written notice that the state offers “immediate, free, or low-cost access” to family planning services, including abortion, for eligible women. The notice was also required to include a phone number for clients to check their eligibility.

According to Mr. Theriot, District Judge Iain Johnston of the Northern District of Illinois appeared receptive to that line of argument. Still, it could be months before a ruling is handed down.

“Hopefully, within the next three to four months, we’ll get a fantastic ruling from the court that says no one should be forced to express messages that violate their convictions,” he said.