Jessica Burgess: Outrage as Americans use hashtag #DeleteFacebook after Facebook Gave Nebraska Cops A Teen, Celeste Burgess' DMs So They Could Prosecute Her For Having An Abortion

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Outrage as Americans use hashtag #DeleteFacebook as Facebook Gave Nebraska Cops A Teen's DMs So They Could Prosecute Her For Having An Abortion.

A 17-year-old girl and her mother have been charged with a series of felonies and misdemeanors after an apparent medication abortion at home in Nebraska. The state’s case relies on evidence from the teenager’s private Facebook messages, obtained directly from Facebook by court order, which show the mother and daughter allegedly bought medication to induce abortion online, and then disposed of the body of the fetus. 

This marks one of the first instances of a person’s Facebook activity being used to incriminate her in a state where abortion access is restricted — a scenario that has remained largely hypothetical in the weeks following the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Nebraska currently outlaws abortions beyond 20 weeks. On Monday, Republican lawmakers in the state failed to secure enough votes to decrease that window to 12 weeks.

Celeste and her mother were charged in July with allegedly removing, concealing or abandoning a dead human body and concealing the death of another person after the Norfolk Police Department received a tip claiming Celeste had miscarried in April at 23 weeks of pregnancy and secretly buried the fetus with her mother's help. The case was first reported by the Lincoln Journal Star.

Celeste: "Are we starting it today?" 

Jessica: "We can if u want the one will stop the hormones"

Celeste: "Ok"

Jessica: "Ya the 1 pill stops the hormones an rehn [sic] u gotta wait 24 HR 2 take the other"

Celeste: "Ok"

Celeste: "Remember we burn the evidence"

"Celeste Burgess talks about how she can't wait to get this 'thing' out of her body and reaffirms it with Jessica Burgess that they will burn the evidence afterwards," McBride wrote in an affidavit requesting permission to seize the Burgess' electronics. "I know from prior training and experience, and conversations with other seasoned criminal investigators, people involved in criminal activity frequently have conversations regarding their criminal activities through various social networking sites … computer hardware, software, and data are instrumentalities and evidence in the commission of this crime."