Nebraska teen Celeste Burgess sentenced for late-term abortion

The Nebraska teen who underwent an illegal, late-term abortion and tried to dispose of the fetus has been sentenced to three months behind bars.

Celeste Burgess, 19, of Norfolk, was hit with a 90-day sentence and two years’ probation at Madison County District Court on Thursday, News Channel Nebraska Central reported.

Her sentence may be reduced to closer to 50 days “due to the possibility of good time,” Andrew Nelson of Courthouse News said.

Burgess pleaded guilty in May to removing, concealing, or abandoning a dead body.

As part of the plea deal, prosecutors removed two misdemeanors from her charges, News Channel Nebraska Central said.

She faced up to two years in prison.

The teen and her mother, Jessica Burgess, 42, were charged with multiple felonies last August for attempting to carry out an illegal late-term home abortion and then trying to burn and bury the fetus.

Norfolk police were initially tipped off in April 2022 that Celeste had given birth to a stillborn baby in a bathtub, court documents said at the time.

Burgess, who was only 17 at the time of the alleged incident, later told investigators that she had a miscarriage and disposed of the fetus with her mother’s help.

When police unearthed the makeshift gravesite in a field, they found the infant’s remains with “thermal injuries,” the documents said.

A search of the mother and daughter’s Facebook messages eventually revealed a plan to perform a home abortion and destroy the evidence.

Burgess even told her mother “how she can’t wait to get the ‘thing’ out of her body,” according to the original court write-up.

In another message, Jessica told her daughter that she had the abortion pills and told her how to end the 29-week pregnancy.

As of May 2023, abortions past 12 weeks gestation are illegal in Nebraska.

Jessica Burgess pleaded guilty earlier this month to providing an abortion after 20 weeks, false reporting, and tampering with human skeletal remains.

Her sentencing is scheduled for September 22.

In addition to Burgess and her mother, a third person, 22-year-old Tanner Barnhill, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor for helping the women bury the fetus on his parents’ land.

He received a misdemeanor.