A mother from Norfolk, Nebraska has been sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to providing abortion pills to her daughter, a teenager, and helping her dispose of the evidence according to a recent report from the Huffington Post on September 22, 2023.
The sentencing was held in July and convicted the woman of providing an abortion after 20 weeks gestation, currently illegal in the state of Nebraska.
She was charged on three counts including false reporting and tampering with human remains. She received one year for each count although the first two will be served simultaneously.
The judge ruled her unfit for probation according to records from the case.
The court dismissed charges related to concealing the death of a person as well as providing an abortion by a non-medical professional.
Her daughter, currently 19 years old, received a jail sentence of 90 days with two years probation.
Overturning of Roe v. Wade
The abortion was within the third trimester of her pregnancy, whilst Nebraska law currently bans abortion after 20 weeks.
Local police were tipped off about the incident and used a search warrant to uncover Facebook messages between the mother and daughter planning the abortion as well as plans to burn the fetus.
The fetus’s remains were discovered buried in a nearby field.
The incident has been cited in the local legislature in debates concerning abortion restrictions as an example of legislation being used to criminalize those who seek abortions.
Nebraska recently attempted to pass a ban on abortions performed after 6 weeks of pregnancy which failed although a later 12-week ban passed as part of a bill restricting options of care provided to transgender youth.
These events follow a US Supreme Court ruling overruling the landmark Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion nationwide for nearly 50 years.