The suspect, though past the 23-week point for legal surgical abortion in Pa., committed the abortion herself using drugs approved for legal use up to only ten weeks of gestation.
A Lancaster, Pa. teenager and her mother are under investigation after police responded to a tip that the remains of an aborted human infant were buried in the family’s backyard.
Police investigations have uncovered disturbing text records detailing the infant’s death, with the mother observing the child was born “still moving” and initially crying. The mother went on to admit that the child looked “like a full baby” with fingernails, lips, and a nose.
The teen also acknowledged that she kept the child’s remains in a box under her bed for two to three weeks before burying them in the backyard. The Lancaster County Coroner’s Office, which has taken custody of the infant’s body, says the cause of death was “extreme prematurity prior to viability.”
According to the witness with whom the suspect corresponded throughout the process, the teen mother induced her own abortion using drugs she and her mother purchased online after being told she was too far along in pregnancy to undergo a legal surgical abortion in Pennsylvania.
Notably, in the Commonwealth, elective surgical abortions are legal through the 23rd week of pregnancy; the chemical abortion regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol, which is regulated federally by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is only approved for use through the tenth week of pregnancy.
“The FDA does not recommend purchasing mifepristone outside of the Mifepristone REMS Program – e.g. buying it online or personally transporting it from a foreign country,” the FDA website warns. “If a person does so, they would be bypassing important safeguards specifically designed to protect their health.”
The chemical abortion regimen has gained increased attention in recent years after proving its significance as the most common abortion method. Last year, the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute reported that abortion drugs accounted for 63 percent of all abortions nationally in 2023.
Chemical abortions have likewise grown in prominence in Pennsylvania; the state Department of Health’s latest abortion surveillance report indicated that 56 percent of abortions committed in the state in 2023 were committed using abortion drugs.
In the years following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the abortion industry has taken to online marketplaces to sell unregulated drugs to abortion-vulnerable mothers in states that have instituted pro-life laws. A February 2025 report estimates 10 percent of U.S. abortions in 2023 were provided by “online-only clinics.”
“Mail-order abortion now comprises 10% of all abortions. This means many women are left to manage painful, traumatic abortions alone, some suffering and even dying from complications,” shared the American Association of Pro-Life OB/GYNs (AAPLOG) via X. “We’ve even seen some women poisoned against their will with abortion drugs by abusers who obtained them online. Promoting DIY abortion is not good healthcare. Our patients deserve better than this.”
