Judge: "Treating fetuses like trash... it's chilling"
"Due to the federal Supreme Court's overturning of women's abortion rights"
A mother in her 40s who bought abortion pills for her daughter who was over 20 weeks pregnant in the United States was sentenced to prison.
Jessica Burgess sentenced to prison for buying abortion pills for her pregnant teenage daughter [Photo by AP News]
On the 23rd (local time), the Associated Press and the local daily Norfolk Daily News reported that Judge Mark Johnson of the Madison County District Court in Nebraska sentenced Jessica Burgess (42), who was charged with illegal abortion and harmful disposal, to two years in prison the day before.
Burgess was charged with giving abortion pills ordered online to her seventeen-year-old daughter who was five months pregnant last spring. According to court documents, the police who received the related tip immediately launched an investigation and secured online messages exchanged between the mother and daughter.
Burgess’s daughter was sentenced to 90 days in prison in July for burning and burying the body of a stillborn fetus and was recently released after serving her sentence. The fetal remains were found buried in a field in Norfolk.
In June last year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling, which recognized abortion as a constitutional right for women, after 49 years, allowing each state to decide whether to maintain abortion rights. AP explained, “The indictment and ruling against the Burgess mother and daughter are a result of the overturning of the Roe vs Wade decision.”
Within one year after the Supreme Court ruling, 25 states, accounting for half of the U.S., enacted laws restricting abortion procedures before six months of pregnancy. As a result, cases of women with unwanted pregnancies traveling to regions where abortion is legal to receive procedures or purchasing and taking abortion pills online have significantly increased.
At the time Burgess’s daughter took the abortion pills, Nebraska had adopted a law banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and recently passed a bill banning abortion after 12 weeks.
The Norfolk Daily News reported, “Burgess’s lawyer requested the judge to impose a suspended sentence, but it was not accepted,” and “Burgess was dragged out of the courtroom crying after being sentenced to prison.”
Judge Johnson told Burgess, “It gives me chills to think that you treated the fetus or stillborn baby like trash and showed no respect,” adding, “Our society expects and demands more.”
Meanwhile, in April, Idaho became the first state in the U.S. to introduce a law banning minors from traveling to other states to receive abortions.
This law prohibits minors from helping others obtain abortion pills or surgeries not only within Idaho but also in other states where abortion is permitted. Such acts are defined as ‘abortion trafficking’ and can be punished with up to five years in prison if violated.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
