Mom goes to jail for ordering abortion pills without a prescription for her daughter
A Pennsylvania woman in jail for ordering abortion pills online for her daughter says she didn’t realize it was illegal to do so.
Jennifer Whalen, 39, began serving a sentence of nine to 18 months in jail on Sept. 12, the New York Times reports. She tells the newspaper that she ordered misoprostol and mifepristone for her 16-year-old daughter, who asked for an abortion in the winter of 2012.
Whalen told the Times that the closest abortion clinic was about 75 miles away, and her daughter would have to have counseling and wait 24 hours before going through with the procedure. The family had only one car at the time, and Whalen didn’t want to tell her husband why she needed to use it for two days. The abortion medication cost only $45. Whalen’s daughter was still in her first trimester.
Whalen’s daughter began having cramps after taking the pills, so Whalen took the girl to the emergency room. The girl was checked and sent home. But the hospital reported the incident to child welfare authorities, resulting in a visit from police, a search of Whalen’s home, and the discovery of the empty box for the medication.
Whalen was charged with offering an abortion consultation without a medical license, endangering the welfare of a child, dispensing drugs without being a pharmacist and assault. The first charge was a felony and the others were misdemeanors. Whalen told the Times she refused to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges because she feared she would lose her job as a personal-care aide at an assisted-living facility.
The judge who sentenced Whalen could have given her probation, but instead opted for a sentence with a provision allowing for work release, according to a Sept. 5 story by the Daily Item. “This was somebody taking life and law into their own hands and not to be taken lightly,” Judge Gary Norton of Montour County said at sentencing.
