Litmus

 A mother in Nebraska was sentenced to two years in prison for supplying her then seventeen year old daughter with medication. The medication in this case was abortion pills. The judge in this case accepted mom's guilty plea for tampering with human remains, false reporting and providing an abortion after at least twenty weeks of gestation. And came back with two years. 

The daughter was sentenced to ninety days in jail and two years of probation for burning and burying the fetus. If that seems odd, then we can agree that things in Nebraska are just that: odd. Since Roe v. Wade was struck down a year ago, many states have been anxious to see who can out-draconian the other when it comes to making sure women limit their right to choose to dishwashing liquid. When it comes to reproductive rights, the government has that covered. 

But how did this very private story become a matter for law enforcement and the courts to adjudicate? Police secured a search warrant to gain access to Facebook messages between the two, where prosecutors say the women discussed terminating the pregnancy and destroying the evidence. A subsequent search uncovered the remains. Now, instead of being a family with ugly secrets in their past, mom and her daughter have criminal records and all the publicity they might ever want for the rest of their lives. Lives destroyed but honor and decorum in Norfolk, Nebraska restored. 

Or at least this version of honor and decorum. It should be noted that when these events were set in motion, back in April 2022, abortion was still legal in Nebraska and the other forty-nine states. In June of that year, when Roe v. Wade was overturned, there was a rush to be the state that could put women and doctors in jail for providing what had been reproductive health care for half a century. 

Suddenly, the clocks wound backwards and pregnancy was no longer a choice. Politicians and prosecutors started sharpening their axes. And the part that gives me the most pause here is the "tip." Who was it that felt that they were going to help this family out by turning their personal business over to the authorities. Meanwhile, the most notable ommisson in this investigation remains unnamed and unpunished for his sins. The boy who helped start this mess is probably out there exercising his right to buy a gun online. Because he can.