Facebook Under Fire For Handing Over Messages Between Mother and Daughter Charged For an Illegal Abortion in Nebraska

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is under fire from critics on Wednesday after reports revealed the company handed over private chat messages between a mother and daughter, which resulted in both being charged with an illegal abortion in Nebraska.

Celeste Burgess and her mother, Jessica Burgess, were under investigation in April after Norfolk police began to believe Celeste prematurely delivered a stillborn fetus. The investigation, notably, began even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, but after the leak of the decision revealed the end of federal abortion protections was likely.

“After The two were initially charged, law enforcement continued to investigate and obtained Facebook messages between Celeste and Jessica that appear to make reference to abortion pills and burning ‘the evidence,’” CNN reported on Tuesday.

CNN viewed a copy of their conversation, which is currently being used as evidence in the case against the mother and daughter.

“Police claim that after the body of the fetus was exhumed, it appeared to have ‘thermal injuries’ indicating that it may have been burned after the pregnancy was terminated, court documents show,” CNN added.

The case has grabbed national attention and resulted in a wave of anger among abortion rights and online privacy advocates.

CNN notes, that on this topic, “Digital privacy experts and some lawmakers have been raising alarms about in recent months: That law enforcement in some states could use people’s personal data to enforce laws prohibiting abortion.”

Dana Sussman, the acting executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, joined CNN’s Newsroom on Wednesday to discuss the case.

“Well, I think what we see here is quite a typical playbook. Unfortunately, most cases of pregnancy-related criminalization start with a report from another person, not from surveilling digital information. And in this case, what we understand is that someone that was known to the family reported something suspicious about this pregnancy loss to the police,” Sussman began.

Victor Blackwell then noted, “I do want to point out that Meta has said that the initial warrant did not mention abortion. It doesn’t go on

to say that if it had mentioned abortion, we would have fought this search warrant or this request.”
He then asked Sussman if she was “finding companies that are fighting” to protect their customers.

“Well, I think what’s important is for companies to take a principled position surrounding what they will do if they are made aware of a search warrant or other requests for information that relate to healthcare-related crimes,” she responded.

Blackwell ended the interview by asking what advice Sussman would give to women facing similar circumstances.

Sussman was reluctant to encourage women “to keep this information as confidential as possible” but added, “I think, more importantly, use encrypted messaging services like signal, use servers and use search engines that don’t track or retain search information.”

“And I think we also need to call upon the major platforms to not retain search information that relates to health care,” she concluded.

Watch the full clip above via CNN