This Is the Data Facebook Gave Police to Prosecute a Teenager for Abortion

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NEW: We've obtained court documents that show Facebook gave police a Nebraska teenager’s private chats about her abortion, then used those chats to seize her phone and computer.

vice.com
This Is the Data Facebook Gave Police to Prosecute a Teenager for Abortion
Motherboard has obtained court documents that show Facebook gave police a teenager’s private chats about her abortion, then used those chats to seize her phone and computer.
11:58 AM · Aug 9, 2022

https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7zevd/this-is-the-data-facebook-gave-police-to-prosecute-a-teenager-for-abortion?utm_source=motherboard_twitter


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 online to induce abortion, and then disposed of the body of the fetus. While the court documents, obtained by Motherboard, allege that the abortion took place before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, they show in shocking detail how abortion could and will be prosecuted in the United States, and how tech companies will be enlisted by law enforcement to help prosecute their cases.

According to court records, Celeste Burgess, 17, and her mother, Jessica Burgess, bought medication called Pregnot designed to end pregnancy. Pregnot is a kit of mifepristone and misoprostol, which is often used to safely end pregnancy in the first trimester. In this case, Burgess was 28 weeks pregnant, which is later in pregnancy than mifepristone and misoprostol are recommended for use. It's also later than Nebraska's 20-week abortion ban (abortion at 28 weeks is legal in about half the country; Nebraska's abortion laws have not changed Roe v. Wade was overturned).

Jessica Burgess is charged with five crimes (three felonies, including "perform/attempt abortion at > 20 weeks, perform abortion by non-licensed doctor, and removing/concealing a dead human body). Celeste is charged with one felony, "removing/concealing/abandoning dead human body" and two misdemeanors: concealing the death of another person and false reporting. She is being tried as an adult. Some details of the case were earlier reported by the Lincoln Journal-Star and Forbes. Motherboard is publishing the search warrants and court records that show specifically how the case is being prosecuted.

After taking the medication, according to court documents, Celeste gave birth to a stillborn fetus. She and her mother allegedly enlisted the help of a 22-year-old man to bury the fetus, and later discussed via Facebook DM burning it to dispose of it. (The man, Tanner Barnhill, is charged with attempting to conceal the death of another person, a misdemeanor.) An autopsy report suggested the fetus was stillborn.

*snip*

[AkFemDem]

1. Yes this is how warrants work

When companies receive them, they’re expected to comply with them.

[SheltieLover]

2. Kicking for visibility

[BSdetect]

3. FB should have erased the evidence as part of an upgrade.

[Hekate]

4. This is Facebook today

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. Presumably if 17 yo girls are now legally adults, Matt Gaetz is off the hook as well

I don't blame Meta, if it's a court order, they have to comply.

Posting this stuff on FB when you live in Nebraska was ... not smart.

And there are no 'private' Facebook messages, everybody should know that by now.

[inthewind21]

6. Posting

stuff on FB no matter where you live is not smart. Welcome to America, the real life idiocracy!

[Elessar Zappa]

7. Did they issue a warrant?

If they did, then Facebook has to comply.