Last summer, the horrifying story of 17-year-old Celeste Burgess, taking abortion-inducing pills provided by her mother, giving birth to a stillborn, and burning and burying the baby with the help of her mother to conceal the body was revealed. While this method is only approved for 10-weeks gestation, Burgess was around 28-weeks pregnant. Burgess was just recently sentenced to 90-days in jail following a plea argument in which she pled guilty in May to a felony charge of removing, concealing or abandoning a dead human body. To the pro-abortion crowd, though, the only thing they saw was that a young woman was arrested and sentenced after having an abortion, with Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) chief among them.
The congressman was trending over the weekend for his retweeted of Brian Tyler Cohen, who ironically hosts a program called "No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen."
Cohen's tweet claimed that the teen "has been sentenced to jail and charged as a felon after ending her pregnancy with abortion pills," neglecting to point out that she took the pills far past the state's legal limit of 20-weeks, and that she was actually charged for how she handled the body. A Community Notes has been added to reflect as much.
Another Community Notes is due for Cohen, though, considering that his tweet claims it was the teen who faces five years in prison, despite how Celeste was already sentenced to 90 days. In reality, The New York Times article that Cohen shared makes clear that it is her mother, Jessica Burgess, who faces such a sentence at a hearing in September, as well as what Celeste was and was not charged with:
The teenager, Celeste Burgess, 19, and her mother, Jessica Burgess, 42, were charged last year after the police obtained their private Facebook messages, which showed them discussing plans to end the pregnancy and “burn the evidence.”
Prosecutors said the mother had ordered abortion pills online and had given them to her daughter in April 2022, when Celeste Burgess was 17 and in the beginning of the third trimester of her pregnancy. The two then buried the fetal remains themselves, the police said.
Jessica Burgess pleaded guilty in July to violating Nebraska’s abortion law, furnishing false information to a law enforcement officer and removing or concealing human skeletal remains. She faces up to five years in prison at her sentencing on Sept. 22, according to Joseph Smith, the top prosecutor in Madison County, Neb.
...
Prosecutors did not charge Celeste Burgess under Nebraska’s abortion law. She pleaded guilty in May to removing or concealing human skeletal remains, a felony. Prosecutors agreed to drop two misdemeanor charges against her: concealing a death and false reporting.
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In his retweet, Lieu referred to the community note as "stupid."
Fittingly, there are now two Community Notes attached, with one of them including the above excerpt of what charges Celeste Burgess was not charged with.
The Twitter community note at the bottom of the tweet is stupid. Putting women in jail for concealing an abortion as compared to having an abortion is not the winning message that Republicans think it is. https://t.co/H40YEemmsI
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) July 22, 2023
Lieu was trending not only for the retweet, but also because he doubled down so fiercely on defending his pro-abortion views. As even The New York Times acknowledged, Burgess was far past viability. Her baby could have survived outside of the womb. As our friends at Twitchy highlighted, people were quick to call out the congressman for refusing to condemn a baby being aborted so close to birth, with that baby then being so callously discarded.
The story, especially the ignorant takes, have garnered considerable attention overall on Twitter, and not just due to Rep. Lieu's hot takes. Some tweets have highlighted the humanity of these children at such a stage.
My mom always told me I’m too naive. It’s probably why I never thought I’d see a day when abortion advocates defend a woman (and the mother who helped her) for poisoning, birthing, bagging, and burning her baby at roughly 24-29 weeks gestation. Human development at that stage: pic.twitter.com/OXBaBrX9wf
— Nichole Liza (@nicholelizaq) July 22, 2023
Where did religion come into play? I missed that part. This is a 28 week old "fetus" that she killed and then burned. I'm not religious at all, but I have a moral compass. This is wrong. pic.twitter.com/8DUpHpxwKD
— LordDylly (@DyllyLord) July 22, 2023
The congressman's doubling down involved a rather odd preoccupation of religious beliefs despite how neither the tweets nor even the Twitter bios of the users he was responding to brought up religion.
You have every right to believe a fetus is a baby. You do not have the right to force your religious belief down other people’s throats.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) July 22, 2023
You have the right to believe a fetus is a baby. You do not have the right to jam your religious belief down other people’s throats. That’s why Democrats will flip the House next year, because of people like you who want to lock women up for concealing an abortion.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) July 23, 2023
You have the right to believe a fetus is a baby. You do not have the right to force your religious belief down other people’s throats, nor force them into jail. That’s why Democrats will flip the House next year, because of people like you who want to jail women.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) July 22, 2023
Ironically, Lieu has tweeted before about being Catholic, despite the Catholic Church taking an unequivocal stance against abortion. Further, Lieu's framing the issue as a religious one is disproven by the existence of groups such as Secular Pro-Life, a group whose leaders include pro-life atheists.
While Lieu's tweets and support for pro-abortion legislation such as the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA) may indicate support for abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy, a majority of Americans oppose abortion in the second and third trimester.
Dear @USCCB: I’m Catholic and you are hypocrites. You did not tell Bill Barr, a Catholic, not to take communion when he expanded killing human beings with the death penalty. You are being nakedly partisan and you should be ashamed. Another reason you are losing membership. https://t.co/kpIYRolnHD
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) June 18, 2021
Dear @USCCB: I’m Catholic and I support:
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) June 18, 2021
-Contraception
-A woman’s right to choose
-Treatments for infertility
-The right for people to get a divorce
-The right of same sex marriage
Next time I go to Church, I dare you to deny me Communion. https://t.co/bUmiyJ8TtH
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