A 42-year-old woman based in Nebraska pleaded guilty to giving her 17-year-old daughter abortion pills. The mother had also been accused of five other charges, including murder and false reporting.
The woman took a plea deal on Friday and admitted to giving her daughter abortion pills after 20 weeks of gestation, false reporting, and tampering with human remains. Self-managed abortion is not considered illegal in the state; however, abortion, miscarriage, and stillbirth can be criminalised.
Mother Gives Abortion Pills To Daughter
The woman, identified as Jessica Burgess, confessed to giving her daughter abortion pills to terminate her pregnancy in the spring of 2022. She claimed that this happened before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Last June, the US Supreme Court quashed the national right to abortion in the US, overturning Roe v. Wade as part of the Dobbs v. Jackson women’s health organisation case.
Prosecutors claimed that the woman provided her daughter with abortion pills in April 2022. The Madison County District Court submitted documents proving the woman ordered abortion pills online.
Her 17-year-old daughter aborted the 29-week-old foetus. The mother and daughter then burned and buried the remains of the foetus in a field in the north of Norfolk, in north-eastern Nebraska. A 21-year-old man allegedly helped them commit the crime.
The man, on the other hand, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanour for helping the mother and daughter duo bury the foetus, and he was granted probation. Authorities later managed to find the remains of the foetus.
The authorities also issued a warrant to probe the Facebook chat of the mother-daughter duo, where they reportedly planned the abortion. The compiled evidence was submitted to the court.
The mother, Jessica Burgess, is set for sentencing on December 22, 2023, for two felony and one misdemeanour charge. Her daughter, Celeste Burgess, who is now 18 years old, was considered an adult and is set for sentencing on July 20, 2023.
Celeste Burgees pleaded guilty to the crime in May 2023 and is facing up to two years in prison for removing, hiding, or abandoning a dead body.
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