A Nebraska mother pleaded guilty on Friday to giving her 17-year-old daughter pills for an illegal abortion and helping the teen dispose of the fetus.
Jessica Burgess, 42, of Norfolk, admitted to providing an abortion after 20 weeks of gestation, false reporting and tampering with human skeletal remains.
Under a plea agreement, additional charges she faced of concealing the death of another person and abortion by someone other than a licensed physician were dismissed.
She was accused of helping her teenage daughter, Celeste Burgess, illegally terminate her pregnancy using abortion pills she bought online, according to documents from the Madison County District Court.
The teen aborted the 29-week-old fetus and, with help from her mother, buried them in a field in northern Nebraska.
Norfolk police were tipped off in April 2022 that Celeste had given birth to a stillborn baby in a bathtub, according to court documents.
When an investigator interviewed the teen, she allegedly confirmed she had a miscarriage and said she and her mother placed the fetus in a bag in the back of their van.
Police were brought to the makeshift gravesite and unearthed the corpse, which showed signs of “thermal injuries,” the documents said.
A search warrant for the mother and daughter’s Facebook messages later revealed the pair had concocted a plan to perform a home abortion and destroy the evidence.
In the messages, which were detailed in court documents, the daughter talked “about how she can’t wait to get the ‘thing’ out of her body.”
In one message, Jessica told her daughter she had gotten the pills and provided her instructions on how to end the pregnancy.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, signed a bill into law in May that bans abortions at 12 weeks of pregnancy. The 12-week ban includes exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.
Celeste, now 18, was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty in May to removing, concealing or abandoning a dead body.
She will be sentenced July 20, and faces up to two years in prison.
Jessica, who faces two felonies and a misdemeanor, is set to be sentenced Sept. 22.
A third person, 22-year-old Tanner Barnhill, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor for helping the women bury the aborted fetus on his parents’ land. He received probation.
With Post wires.
