Teen jailed for three months after buying abortion pills to end pregnancy at 17

20 July 2023 , 18:24

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Celeste Burgess had an abortion at 17, with her mother's help - except she lived in Nebraska and was over 20 weeks pregnant, which is illegal (Image: ktiv)

A judge has sentenced a 19-year-old to 90 days in jail for buying pills for a late-term abortion and concealing the remains of the foetus.

Celeste Burgess's private Facebook messages with her mother Jessica were seized by authorities - revealing the two had talked about acquiring abortion pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) via the internet. Celeste was 29 weeks' pregnant at the time.

Nebraska has since made its abortion laws even more restrictive, banning the procedure after just 12 weeks.

But in 2022 when Celeste became pregnant, the rules permitted abortions up to 20 weeks. The law used by her prosecutors was passed in 2010 and was more restrictive than most states, which normally ban the procedure after 24 weeks.

Celeste's mum helped the then 17-year-old order pills on the internet and had her take the medication. The two burned the foetus and buried them in a field north of Norfolk in northeastern Nebraska. Authorities later found the remains.

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Madison County Attorney Joe Smith has said it’s the first time he has charged anyone with illegally performing an abortion after 20 weeks, a restriction that was passed in 2010. In May, Republican Gov. Jim Pillen signed a 12-week abortion ban into law.

Celeste pleaded guilty to one count of removing, concealing, or abandoning a dead body as part of a plea agreement in Madison County District Court on Monday.

Under a plea agreement, her mother, 42, admitted to providing an abortion after 20 weeks of gestation, false reporting and tampering with human skeletal remains. Charges of concealing the death of another person and abortion by someone other than a licensed physician were dismissed.

In the Facebook messages obtained by authorities, the mother gave her child instruction on how to take the medication safely. The daughter, meanwhile, “talks about how she can’t wait to get the ‘thing’ out of her body,” a detective wrote in court documents.

“I will finally be able to wear jeans,” she says in one of the messages. Law enforcement authorities obtained the messages with a search warrant and detailed some of them in court documents.

Last summer, a man pleaded no contest to a misdemeanour for helping the women bury the fetus on his parents’ land. He got probation.

Originally, the mother and daughter told investigators that Celeste 'had a miscarriage' and the two buried the remains. Authorities decided to use the new laws to investigate the child's Facebook messages to 'look for evidence of a miscarriage' when they found the discussion regarding abortion pills.

This case raises major concerns for many women in states where seeking an abortion is now a criminalized activity.

Yelena Mandenberg