A 42-year-old woman, Jessica Burgess has been sentenced to two years in prison for helping her teenage daughter acquire abortion pills in the US state of Nebraska.
Burgess and her daughter were charged with working together to end Celeste Burgess’ pregnancy last year.
Jessica ordered the pills online and gave them to her daughter, who was 17 years old at the time and in the third trimester of her pregnancy, prosecutors said.
Authorities said the Burgesses later buried the fetal remains.
In April 2022, police began investigating “concerns” that Celeste Burgess had given birth prematurely to a stillborn child, which was allegedly buried.
This July, the daughter was sentenced to 90 days in jail after she pleaded guilty to removing or concealing human skeletal remains.
The same month, Jessica pleaded guilty to violating Nebraska’s abortion law, furnishing false information to a law enforcement officer and removing or concealing human skeletal remains.
Celeste, who was released earlier this month, was in the courtroom and wiped tears from her face when her mother was sentenced on Friday.
The judge denied a request by Jessica’s lawyer to sentence her to probation, saying she had treated the fetal remains “like yesterday’s trash”.
