A Pennsylvania mother is facing up to 18 months behind bars for giving her teenage daughter abortion pills that she purchased on the Internet.

Jennifer Ann Whalen, 39, of Washingtonville, was sentenced on Friday to up tp 18 months in prison for breaking state law and performing an illegal abortion, reports the Bloomsburg Press Enterprise.

Back in Aug., Whalen, a single mother and nursing home aide, pleaded guilty to obtaining the miscarriage-inducing pills for $45 from an European drug firm for her 16-year-old daughter, who wanted to end her pregnancy.

The state law, which requires abortions to be performed by physicians, comes with a felony offense and calls for up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine. However, Montour County Court of Common Pleas Judge Gary Norton handed Whalen a light sentence in addition to a $1,000 fine and 40 hours of community service upon her release.

Whalen told authorities that she ordered the pills because she did not live near a local clinic that could perform an abortion since the neatest clinic was about 74 miles away from her home. Plus, her daughter did not have health insurance to cover a hospital abortion.

Whalen also told police at the time of her arrest hat she was unaware that a prescription was required in order to take the drugs.

However, after the teen took a drug cocktail consisting of Misoprostol and Mifepristone, she suffered from severe cramping and bleeding and was taken to the hospital for treatment for extreme abdominal pain, reports Think Progress.

Speaking on her behalf, Whalen's attorney, Michael Bingham Banks, says his client understands "her decision was poor," reports PIX 11.

He added that criminal prosecutions like this were not common, Reuters reports.

Research from the Guttmacher Institute shows that about 87 percent of counties in Pennsylvania lack a single abortion provider, which leaves almost half of the state's women without access to safe abortions.