Nebraska Cops Subpoena Facebook Messages to Prosecute Abortion

[jwinfield]

A Nebraska teenager is facing criminal charges alleging she aborted a fetus in violation of state law, after authorities obtained her Facebook messages using a search warrant. Seventeen-year-old Celeste Burgess, who is being tried as an adult along with her mother Jessica Burgess, is awaiting trial in Madison County District Court on charges that they broke a Nebraska law banning abortions after 20 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.


While Celeste told police that she had suffered a miscarriage, they continued to investigate, serving Facebook with a search warrant to access Celeste and Jessica’s Facebook accounts. They subsequently found messages between the mother and daughter allegedly detailing how Celeste had undergone a self-managed abortion with Jessica’s help. There are four states that ban abortion at 24 weeks, and more than a dozen that broadly ban it at the start of fetal viability.

 

[Hannibal alexander]

jesus christ. no privacy, they are coming for everyone. if you are a black person in red state, get out asap

 

[Kyle C. Barker]

Wow

 

[Dorian Breh]

Well gah damn

It must be #BothSides

 

[It's been real]

Cacs trying to up their numbers by any means necessary

 

[Paper Boi]

and republicans love to whine about how they're "literally living in 1984"

 

[Doobie Doo]

That's bullshyt. You want to ban abortion in your state, fine. But this is like persecuting someone for smoking weed in Colorado when they live in a state where weed is illegal.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

This is a constitutional crisis.

You have local DAs not wanting to follow these dumbass laws too.

We're spiraling towards a major conflict.

 

[Kingshango]

I always feel like, somebody’s watching meeeee!