When Kathy Lesnoff first sat in the procedure room to assist abortions, she never imagined she would go on to direct an organization that stood for life. Her life was on the precipice of a complete turnaround, where God took her darkest moments and worked them for good. Kathy’s journey from abortion assistant to life-affirming advocate and CEO of a pregnancy center began just weeks after starting her job at the abortion clinic.
Working at the Abortion Clinic
In 1979, Kathy Lesnoff, a married nursing student with a newborn, took a job at an abortion clinic to help pay off school debt. With her healthcare background, she was hired as an abortion assistant.
Strongly pro-choice at the time, Kathy had been raised Catholic but lacked a personal relationship with God.
“Though I saw it all when it was finished — arms and legs — I didn’t see it,” Kathy recalls assisting with the abortion procedures. “I have a heart for those in the abortion industry because they’re blind. They don’t see it.”
She remembers her favorite doctor picking up a baby’s lungs with forceps, amazed by the development at that stage. Soon, her eyes would open to the truth.
Finding God
Only a few weeks into her job as an abortion assistant at the clinic, things at home began to crumble. Her marriage was failing, and Kathy’s husband, Mike, asked her to file for divorce. This sent Kathy into a deep depression.
“I was at the end of my life. All of my friends were graduating. I had a baby, hadn’t finished school, was working at this abortion clinic, and my husband was leaving me,” says Kathy.
That night, Kathy attempted to take her own life. By a miracle only God could orchestrate, the gun was jammed, and she failed at her attempt. So, she called her mother-in-law for help. Kathy’s mother-in-law led her to Christ, but what Kathy didn’t know was that this fateful night was the beginning of Kathy’s journey to becoming a beacon for life and Christ.
A Life-Changing Moment
Kathy had found Jesus. By the grace of God, not long after, her husband found Jesus as well. Over the following months, Kathy and Mike became radical for Christ. However, despite their transformation, Kathy continued working at the abortion clinic, still blind to the whole truth of what was happening there—until one day, the clinic made an exception for a desperate woman seeking an abortion at 23 weeks.
The Turning Point
Kathy vividly remembers that day. The procedure dragged on for nearly an hour, and the baby—a fully formed little boy—was much further along than she’d ever seen. She watched as the doctor cut his arms and legs off. After the doctor finished, Kathy took the baby to the cleanup room, where a constantly running toilet was used to dispose of remains. She had done this thousands of times in her short few months working there. But this time, something inside her broke. She stood frozen, cradling the baby’s body, weeping.
“It was like a veil lifted,” she said. “I suddenly saw it for what it was—I was killing babies. And it didn’t matter if they were six weeks or 23. They were all babies.”
When the clinic director found her sobbing, she rebuked her, saying, “You’re a professional. Pull yourself together.” Then, she took the baby and flushed him away.
That night, Kathy went home and told her husband everything. She never returned to the procedure room.
Leaving the Abortion Clinic
Kathy’s husband asked her to pray about what to do. The job was her primary income, and they were still in debt, with a newborn to support. The next day, when Kathy returned to work, everything felt different. As soon as she entered the clinic, she was hit by a terrible odor she had never noticed. The clinic was cold, and she couldn’t shake the chill no matter how many jackets she wore. In that moment, Kathy knew God was revealing the clinic’s wickedness to her. The veil had been lifted from her eyes. But how could she quit?
That morning, Kathy refused to work in the procedure room and stayed in the cleanup room. The clinic director walked in, looking troubled.
“Kathy,” she said, “I had a dream last night about you. It was so real. I sat in bed wondering if you’d told me or if I just dreamed it.”
“What was it?” Kathy asked, unsure.
“I dreamed you came into my office and told me you had to quit because of your religion,” the director replied, emphasizing the word religion—Kathy had kept her conversion to Christianity a secret.
God had given Kathy her opening. She immediately started crying and told her director that the dream was right—she had to quit because she had found Jesus.
“And so, I walked out that day, never to return,” Kathy recalls.
God’s Dream for Kathy
For the next five years, Kathy couldn’t talk about her experience working as an abortion assistant at the clinic. Although she repented to God and continued to grow in her faith, she was still embarrassed and ashamed of her involvement at the abortion clinic.
One morning, her husband woke to tell Kathy about his dream. He dreamed he and Kathy would be involved in a pregnancy center, helping pregnant women choose life.
At this point, Kathy had never even heard of a Pregnancy Resource Center.
Kathy’s Destiny for Life
Not long after, during a Bible study, a woman shared with Kathy about her abortion, which gave Kathy the confidence to open up about her past working as an abortion assistant. A week and a half later, one of the women from the study, whose sister was the president of the Illinois Federation of Right to Life, called Kathy and asked her to share her testimony in January. Kathy agreed.
Later, she took a client advocate training seminar and volunteered for free at the Pregnancy Resource Center. Although she was working at the time, she decided to quit her job to volunteer in St. Louis.
Eventually, this Pregnancy Resource Center opened another location across the river in Granite City, where Kathy became the founder, president, and CEO. Today, she partners with Save the Storks and runs her own Mobile Medical Clinic (MMC) to help women in need.
Join us in making a difference today.
Kathy Lesnoff’s story is a powerful reminder of how God can turn any story around and make all things work together for good. We know He can do the same for women facing unplanned pregnancies.
Will you stand with Kathy and help us reach more women before it’s too late? Your support helps get life-affirming mobile medical clinics on the road, bringing hope, truth, and care to women in need. Together, we can equip more partners with their MMCs to provide the love and resources women deserve.
