Update 11/4/23: The Bannock County Prosecutor’s Office has called out media outlets for their misleading coverage of the arrests of Rachael Swainston and her son Kadyn.
After the pair were arrested, Substack author Jessica Valenti, who publishes a daily abortion rights newsletter, “Abortion, Every Day,” claimed these were the first “abortion trafficking” arrests in the nation. She said that while prosecutors declined to use the “abortion trafficking” law, they did the exact same language found in the law when they filed the kidnapping charges. Prosecutors are speaking out after Valenti’s misleading reporting spread across the internet with multiple news outlets citing her website as the main source.
“Kadyn and Rachael Swainston were charged with second-degree kidnapping,” said Bannock County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Erin Tognetti. “That statute requires the taking of a child under the age of sixteen and concealing the child from a parent, guardian or person having lawful care or control of the child. In this case, the child wanted to contact her parents regarding the situation before leaving the state, and the Swainstons prevented her from doing that. The kidnapping charges against the Swainstons result from their coercion of the child and secreting her out of the state without permitting her to communicate with her parents.”
Tognetti added, “The child’s abortion is not an element of the charged offense, and the Idaho abortion trafficking statute is not implicated in this case.”
Rachael was charged with second-degree kidnapping for taking a 15-year-old girl (known as K.B. in court documents) to Oregon for an abortion earlier this year while Kadyn (the girl’s 18-year-old boyfriend) has also been charged with kidnapping in addition to rape and three counts of producing child sexually exploitative material.
11/2/23: An Idaho woman and her adult son have been arrested and charged with multiple felonies after they allegedly took a teen girl for an abortion in Oregon without her parents’ consent or knowledge. Idaho protects preborn children from abortion while Oregon allows abortion at any time for any reason regardless of the girl’s age.
Rachael Swainston, 42, and her son Kadyn Swainston, 18, have been charged with second-degree kidnapping for taking a 15-year-old girl (known as K.B. in court documents) to Oregon for an abortion earlier this year. In addition to the kidnapping charge, Kadyn has been charged with rape and three counts of producing child sexually exploitative material.
Rachael has also been charged with trafficking in methamphetamine, two counts of possession of a controlled substance (one for fentanyl and one for psychedelic mushrooms), and one count of harboring a wanted felon. Neither is being charged under the state’s abortion trafficking law, which penalizes adults who take minors across state lines for abortions without parental consent. A lawsuit to strike down that law is currently pending.
Despite this information, pro-abortion advocates have dishonestly attempted to paint this case as one that is merely seeking to attack abortion travel or “abortion trafficking.” Author of the tweet, Jessica Valenti, attempted to blame “antis” (those who oppose abortion) for controversy surrounding her tweet. But it was X’s “Community Notes” which pointed out that her original tweet (seen below) left out some very crucial information:
It’s not just the boogeyman “antis,” it’s the Community Notes pointing to how multiple crimes were committed against a minor. pic.twitter.com/JKtvLejj93
— Rebecca Downs (@RebeccaRoseGold) November 1, 2023
K.B. was supposed to be living with her father, but for the six months leading up to June 2022, she was living with her boyfriend Kadyn and his mother in Pocatello, Idaho. At first, she was 15 and he was 17, but he turned 18 at some point in their relationship. It was around his 18th birthday that K.B. said she became pregnant.
On June 18, the girl’s mother, Ashley Diamond, contacted Pocatello police to report that her daughter had been raped and had been taken to Oregon for an abortion without her permission. Oregon does not have any laws protecting preborn children from abortion and has no parental consent laws or any other laws surrounding abortion. Police opened an investigation.
According to the Standard Journal, on August 2, K.B.’s parents confirmed with police that they had not given permission for the Swainstons to take their daughter out of the state. K.B. was interviewed at a local child advocacy center that same day where she admitted to engaging in sex with Kadyn when he was 17 and continuing after he turned 18. She said shortly after his 18th birthday, she learned she was pregnant, which she was “happy” about. Kadyn, however, was not happy and told her she had to get an abortion or leave. He said he would not pay child support and would end the relationship if she kept the baby.
East Idaho News reports that Kadyn and his mother were worried Kadyn would get in trouble with the police if K.B. did not have an abortion. The age of consent in Idaho is 18, though there is an exception if the younger person is 16 or 17 and the other person is less than three years older.
Allegedly, K.B. agreed to the abortion and planned to tell her parents, but Rachael warned her that if she did tell her parents, Rachael would be kicked out of the home. Rachael then scheduled the abortion with Planned Parenthood in Bend. Planned Parenthood has a history of helping child sex abusers cover up their crimes.
K.B. also revealed that on May 18, Rachael rented a car and traveled with her and Kadyn to Bend, Oregon, where she was given the abortion pill on May 19 at about six weeks pregnant. She also had to be treated for “multiple” sexually transmitted diseases. A search of Kadyn’s, Rachael’s, and K.B.’s phones confirmed that they traveled together to Bend on May 18.
K.B. gave police a copy of the medical paperwork she received after the abortion. She also gave police permission to extract data from her phone, which uncovered video and photographs of sex acts between the girl and Kadyn.
Police searched the Swainston home on October 26 and found over 40 grams of methamphetamines in Rachael’s room, and also arrested a man staying in a storage shed on the property who had an outstanding felony warrant for meth trafficking charges. According to reports, Bannock County prosecutor Erin Tognetti said Rachael was supplying K.B. with meth and smoking it with her on a regular basis.
Kadyn was interviewed and admitted to having sex with the girl when he was 18 and she was 15.
Kadyn and Rachael were then charged, arrested, and booked. They appeared in court separately on Friday and were both released. They are scheduled to be back in court on November 7 to determine if there is enough evidence against them to take their cases from magistrate court to district court for their trials.
According to the Idaho State Journal, Kadyn is facing up to life in prison for the rape charges while the other felony charges he is facing carry a maximum penalty of up to 115 years in prison and a fine of up to $200,000.
His mother faces up to life in prison for her felony meth trafficking charge. The other felony charges carry up to 44 years in prison and a fine of up to $130,000.
K.B. told police that following the abortion, her relationships with Kadyn and Rachael started to deteriorate and that they would “pick at everything she did and make her feel like everything she did was wrong.” They also kicked her out of their home.
