EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – A Missouri man pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to 15 ½ years in federal prison for kidnapping his pregnant girlfriend at gunpoint in an attempt to force her to have an abortion, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois reports.
The abduction took place in December 2022, just months after the Dobbs Supreme Court decision, while unborn children and their mothers were broadly protected by law in Missouri. In 2018-2019, Planned Parenthood secretly constructed an 18,000-square-foot mega-facility directly across the border from St. Louis in Fairview Heights, where they abort babies up to 27 weeks of pregnancy.
Kevin L. Smith took his girlfriend from her workplace and drove her to the Fairview Heights Planned Parenthood, threatening to shoot her in the head. She was able to alert police and her child survived. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Smith has continued to threaten her from jail. Smith’s defense plans to appeal.
U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft, an appointee of Attorney General Pam Bondi, said in a statement:
“It is not easy to shock law enforcement officials because we have pretty much seen it all—but then someone like Kevin Smith comes along. It is difficult to find words adequate to describe someone who would kidnap his pregnant girlfriend to force her to have an abortion at gunpoint and then continue to threaten her from jail. This vile crime terrorized the victim and threatened the life of her unborn child. Smith deserves every minute of that prison sentence.”
SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser blasted Democrats and the abortion lobby, saying:
“The abortion industry led by Planned Parenthood is an abuser’s best friend. Over and over we see pimps, traffickers and angry partners make Planned Parenthood their destination because they know they’ll be aided and abetted with no questions asked, and we see this brutal industry fight tooth and nail against parental consent protections for minors. Nearly a quarter of women who’ve had abortions describe them as unwanted or coerced, an epidemic that translates to more than 250,000 a year.
“Democrats are making this epidemic exponentially worse by eliminating safeguards on dangerous abortion drugs, like in-person doctor visits that afford the only chance to screen for coercion face to face, flooding the mail with deadly drugs bought and sold anonymously over the web – even sold like street drugs now. When JB Pritzker pledged to make Illinois an ‘oasis’ for abortion on demand, it is no wonder violent men saw a rolled-out welcome mat. And in Minnesota, Democrats led by Tim Walz deliberately repealed anti-coercion protections. Across the board, from Biden to Pritzker to Gavin Newsom to Kathy Hochul and many more, Democrats’ blindness to domestic violence against women and children is callous and unconscionable. Their policies aren’t ‘pro-choice,’ they’re pro-abortion.
“Democrats’ contempt for the rule of law is undermining states’ sovereign right to protect mothers and children all across the country. It is important to continue keeping taxpayer dollars out of the coffers of Big Abortion. But we also need national protections, and the FDA must act immediately to get abortion drugs out of the mail.”
A New York Times investigation found patterns of substandard care and shocking, unsanitary conditions at Planned Parenthoods nationwide – all while the organization’s abortions, taxpayer funding and political spending hit record numbers. In July President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which defunded the Big Abortion industry of a year’s worth of federal funding – approximately half a billion in taxpayer dollars.
In 2026, Missouri voters will have the opportunity to pass a pro-life ballot measure to replace the narrowly passed Amendment 3, which enshrined late-term abortion in the state constitution.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is a network of more than one million pro-life Americans nationwide, dedicated to ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.