A heartbreaking update has emerged in the tragic Lancaster County case we first reported—a teen and her mother have now been charged with concealing the death of a child after the teen took abortion pills at home, gave birth alone, and buried the baby’s body in their backyard.
But the true heartbreak is not the arrest—that is just and necessary under the law. The real tragedy is the deception: a mother and daughter led to believe that a chemical abortion was the solution to their crisis, and misled to deny the undeniable humanity of the unborn child growing in the teen’s womb. This reflects a failure of our educational system.
This is the Same Tragedy—Now with Legal Consequences
This case follows the story we first shared last month, involving a teenage girl in East Donegal Township who, after being turned away by a Planned Parenthood clinic for being too far along in pregnancy, took abortion pills ordered online and delivered a baby at home.
“It just came out now and it’s like a full baby and it’s still moving,” she texted a friend.
We now know more. According to police and court documents, the mother purchased the pills online from a site called “Private Emma,” a non-medical, unregulated vendor. The pills were taken at approximately 20 weeks gestation—well past the FDA’s approved limit for use. The teen and her mother buried the child’s body in their backyard. After a friend reported the event to police nearly a year later, the two were charged—not for the abortion, which sadly remains legal—but for hiding the death and remains of a child.
When Deception Becomes Tragedy
This is the true cost of an abortion industry that prioritizes mail-order convenience over real care for expectant mothers. A teen girl was convinced to handle a late-term abortion alone, in secret, with no medical oversight. Her mother went along with it.
This was never healthcare. This was abandonment.
Abortion activists claim abortion pills are “safe and simple.” But as we wrote previously, “The narrative of ‘choice’ crumbles when women, left to fend for themselves, must resort to burying their own child because they were misled into believing a chemical abortion was an easy, private solution.”
Our Laws Must Reflect the Value of Human Life
This arrest is not a cause for outrage—it is a cultural wake-up call. It reminds us that even in a society desensitized to the realities of abortion, our laws still affirm the inherent value of human life. That includes the dignity of the child lost in this case, and the need for justice in how that life was hidden and discarded.
We must also confront the deeper crisis: young people are being taught that abortion is a fix, not a tragedy. They are shielded from the reality of human development in the womb. This highlights the urgent need for education—real, honest education—about fetal development and the humanity of the unborn.
The Abortion Pill Industry is Not Empowering Women
The rise of mail-order abortion is not about access—it’s about isolation. It disconnects women from doctors, from support, and from truth. It reduces a child’s life to a transaction and a padded envelope. And it abandons women to pick up the pieces alone.
Lancaster is not alone. But it is a sobering example close to home.
Women Deserve Better
As Jill Hartman of A Woman’s Concern said in response to this case, “Women’s health is put at risk, as well as the lives of unborn babies, when purchasing abortion pills online.”
Pennsylvania must act. We must restore safety protocols, end the reckless distribution of abortion pills online, and protect both women and their unborn children from an industry that preys on fear.
To learn more about abortion recovery and healing, visit https://abortionhealing.org/. For help with an unplanned pregnancy or more resources, visit https://pregnancydecisionline.org/
