Nebraska Mom & Daughter Arrested For Illegal Abortion After Facebook Gave Access To Their DMs

Facebook Under Fire For Giving Authorities Access To Nebraska Mom & Daughter Conversation Over Illegal Abortion

Tech company Meta is under-fire after it was revealed that they turned over private messages between a Nebraska mother and daughter to police that discussed plans to perform an illegal abortion.

Meta complied with a search warrant from the Norfolk, Nebraska police department in their investigation into mother-daughter duo Jessica Burgess, 41, and Celeste Burgess, 17.

The Burgess were under investigation for suspicions that they performed an illegal abortion in the state. Celeste was attempting to terminate a 23-week-old pregnancy, when the legal cut off is 20-weeks. Meta gave police access to their Facebook accounts, where they exchanged messages about the procedure.

 

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“Are we starting it today,” Celeste asked in one of the messages, which were included in court filings. “We can if u want the one will stop the hormones,” Jessica responded. Later on, Celeste allegedly wrote, “Remember we burn the evidence.” “Yep,” Jessica responded.

Celeste, who is now 18, has been charged with removing/concealing/abandoning a dead human body, concealing the death of another person and false reporting. Jessica has been charged with performing or attempting an abortion greater than 20 weeks, performing an abortion when not a licensed doctor, removing/concealing/abandoning a dead human body, concealing the death of another person and false reporting.

Meta claims that they were under the impression that the investigation was for something else. They turned over the records on June 9, almost 2 weeks before the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

“Nothing in the valid warrants we received from local law enforcement in early June, prior to the Supreme Court decision, mentioned abortion,” said Meta spokesperson Andy Stone. “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.”