Nebraska Mother & Daughter Charged After Meta Provides Police With Alleged Evidence Relating To An Abortion Case

Source: Chesnot / Getty

A Nebraska mother and her teenage daughter face charges after Meta provided local police with alleged evidence via their Facebook messages that the two performed an at-home abortion.

Prosecutors allege Jessica Burgess, 41, and her then-17-year-old daughter organized for the latter to take pills to induce an at-home abortion.

Law enforcement also believes Burgess and her daughter burned the fetus’ remains as a way to conceal and dispose of evidence of the teenager’s pregnancy.

The police’s investigation into the case began in April, before the overturn of Roe v. Wade, according to CNBC.

While Nebraska laws reportedly haven’t changed since the overturning of the landmark case, one of the state’s laws declares abortion illegal 20 weeks after a women’s egg is fertilized.

Detective Ben McBride’s affidavit related to the Burgess case claims the teenager took abortion pills and miscarried when she was around 23 weeks pregnant.

Facebook chats turned over by Meta include two online users — allegedly the mother and daughter duo — discussing how to take the pills and bury the fetus.

The daughter, now 18, and her mother pled not guilty in July to the charges they face.

Jessica Burgess’ charges include five alleged crimes — three felonies, and two misdemeanors.

The teenager, who is being tried as an adult, faces one felony and two misdemeanors.

All of the charges in the case relate to performing an abortion, concealing another person’s death and providing false information.

Meta’s Response

Meta claims it received a warrant requesting all the data on the mother and daughter, including their private DMs.

“Nothing in the valid warrants we received from local law enforcement in early June, prior to the Supreme Court decision, mentioned abortion,” Meta said in a statement released on Aug. 9.

“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,” the tech company added. “Both of these warrants were originally accompanied by non-disclosure orders, which prevented us from sharing any information about them. The orders have now been lifted.”