Teen, Mom Face Felony Abortion-Related Charges After Facebook Gives Cops Their DMs

MADISON COUNTY, NE — A Nebraska teen and her mother face felony charges after Facebook gave police messages in which the girl and her parent appeared to discuss plans to end the daughter’s pregnancy, according to court records uploaded by NBC News.

Celeste Burgess was 17 when Jessica Burgess, 41, ordered pills to induce an abortion and the two then buried and burned the fetus, Madison County court documents said.

Both were charged last month with prohibited acts to human skeletal remains, a felony, as well as concealing a death and false information, legal records said. Jessica Burgess faces additional felony charges of abortion and abortion by someone other than a licensed physician, according to court documents. Celeste Burgess is being tried as an adult, Forbes reported.

The two discussed April 20 on Facebook the arrival of pills for Celeste to take, according to legal records, which noted the social media giant gave police the messages after being served with a search warrant.

“C. Burgess talks about how she can’t wait to get the ‘thing’ out of her body and reaffirms with J. Burgess that they will burn the evidence afterwards,” court documents said.

Two days later, Celeste Burgess miscarried a fetus that she told police was stillborn, legal records said, noting her due date was July 3.

Caitlin and Jessica Burgess took the fetus to a property outside Norfolk, where they burned and buried it with the assistance of a third party, a then 21-year-old man, according to court documents. Both mother and daughter have pleaded not guilty, NBC News reported, adding the lawyer for the family did not respond to a comment request.

Abortion is banned starting at 22 weeks in Nebraska, according to the Guttmacher Institute, and a medication abortion must be conducted in person and cannot be done via telehealth or mailing pills. The charges come after the U.S. Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe vs. Wade, although the investigation started well before the reversal.

“Nothing in the valid warrants we received from local law enforcement in early June, prior to the Supreme Court decision, mentioned abortion," Meta, which owns Facebook, said in a statement to NBC News.

"The warrants concerned charges related to a criminal investigation and court documents indicate that police at the time were investigating the case of a stillborn baby who was burned and buried, not a decision to have an abortion.”