An American woman from Nebraska has been sentenced to two years in prison for helping her teenage daughter have a medical abortion, the New York Times writes.
Jessica Burgess and her daughter, Celeste, were both charged with terminating their second pregnancy in April 2022. The 41-year-old mother ordered the abortion pills online and gave them to her daughter, who was 17 at the time and was undergoing in the third trimester of her pregnancy. According to local authorities, the family then buried the fetus.
In April this year, police began investigating allegations that Celeste Burgess gave birth prematurely to a stillborn baby, which her family buried. In July, the daughter was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to concealing human remains. Her mother, who faced a total of five charges, pleaded guilty to three of them: violating the abortion law, giving false information to a law enforcement official and concealing human remains.
Celeste, who was released from prison earlier this month, was present in the courtroom and sobbed when she heard her mother's sentence, the Daily News reported.
A 2010 law in Nebraska allows abortion up to the 20th week of pregnancy. On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned the 1973 decision that guaranteed American women's nationwide right to abortion. Since then, each State is free to decide its own policy regarding access to termination of pregnancy services.
Source: RES-EAP