Celeste Burgess, the Nebraska teenager who took abortion pills at six months gestation and then burned her baby’s body, has been sentenced to 90 days in prison after pleading guilty to the crime earlier this year.
The Associated Press reported that in exchange for her guilty plea on charges of concealing or abandoning a dead body, two other misdemeanor charges Celeste was charged with were dropped. “The Court specifically finds that while probation is appropriate, confinement is necessary because, without this confinement, it would depreciate the seriousness of the crime or promote disrespect for the law,” the judge’s order read.
Notably, the crime took place before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Jessica Burgess, Celeste’s mother, obtained abortion pills for her daughter, who was said to have been 24 weeks pregnant at the time. Prosecutors have since said she was actually 29 weeks pregnant. The abortion pill regimen (mifepristone and misoprostol) is not FDA-approved for use after 10 weeks of pregnancy, and additionally, Nebraska law protects preborn children from abortion after 20 weeks gestation. Facebook messages between mother and daughter indicated a callous disregard for the baby’s life; Celeste wrote that she couldn’t wait to get “this thing” out of her, and how excited she was to be able to wear jeans again after the abortion. They also agreed to burn the “evidence,” meaning the baby’s body.
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After instructing Celeste on how to take the pills, both mother and daughter got to work disposing of the body, asking 22-year-old Tanner Barnhill to help. They put the body into a plastic bag, threw it into the back of their car, and then burned it before burying it. They repeatedly dug the body up and reburied it, with police saying the body was burned after the second burial.
According to the autopsy report, it is possible that the baby was stillborn, but also possible that the baby was born alive. There was no air in the baby’s lungs, but the report noted that “the placement of the fetus into a plastic bag raises the possibility of asphyxia due to suffocation.” There were also “thermal wounds” on the baby’s body from having been burned.
Jessica, who pled guilty to removing, concealing, or abandoning a dead body, false reporting, and performing or attempting an abortion after 20 weeks, will be sentenced on September 22.
