A Nebraska mother has pleaded guilty to giving her 17-year-old daughter pills for an illegal abortion last year and helping to burn and bury the fetus.
Under a plea agreement, Jessica Burgess, 42, of Norfolk, 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.
Burgess was accused of helping her then-17-year-old daughter, Celeste Burgess, end her pregnancy. Madison county district court documents show she ordered abortion pills on the internet.
After the teen aborted the 29-week-old fetus, the two burned the remains and buried them in a field north of Norfolk in north-eastern Nebraska. Authorities later found the burned fetus.
Madison county attorney Joe Smith has said it is the first time he has charged anyone with illegally performing an abortion after 20 weeks, a restriction that was passed in 2010. In May, the Republican governor, Jim Pillen, signed a 12-week abortion ban.
After pleading guilty last Friday, Jessica Burgess is set for sentencing on 22 September. Two of the counts against her are felonies, one is a misdemeanor.
Celeste Burgess, now 18, was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty in May to removing, concealing or abandoning a dead body. She is scheduled to be sentenced on 20 July. She faces up to two years in prison.
Via Facebook messages, the two discussed terminating the pregnancy and plans to destroy the evidence. The messages, which law enforcement acquired using a search warrant, were detailed in court documents.
Last summer, a man pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor for helping the women bury the fetus on his parents’ land.
Last June, the conservative-dominated US supreme court struck down the national right to an abortion in the US, upending almost 50 years of precedent after overturning Roe v Wade as part of the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.
It has sparked a year of protest, political backlash and some surprises by pro-choice campaigners and voters and more incidents of extreme difficulties for women wanting or needing to access abortion.
The power on abortion rights passed to the individual states, some of which have enshrined protections, while others have heavily restricted or all but banned the procedure.
