Lawrence, MA (LifeNews.com) -- A Massachusetts woman has been charged with manslaughter in the abortion death of her viable unborn child. Amber Abreu, 18, used a combination of the RU 486 drug and an ulcer drug sometimes misused by abortion businesses to cause abortions, that resulted in the death of her baby.

The abortion drug combination failed and Abreu delivered a 1 1/4 pound baby on January 6 who was between 23 and 25 weeks into the pregnancy. Abortions are legal in Massachusetts up to the 24th week of pregnancy.

Despite the delivery, baby Ashley Abreu was unable to be saved and she died four days later at a local Boston hospital.

According to a report in the North Andover Eagle-Tribune newspaper, Abreu was arrested yesterday and charged with producing a miscarriage, a felony that involves the use of a drug to end a pregnancy without an abortion and includes as much as seven years in prison.

Because the self-abortion resulted in the baby's birth and subsequent death, police Chief John Romero said Abreu could face manslaughter charges.

"The difference here is that the child was born and lived," Romero told the newspaper.

Police say the teen admitted to using a combination of the RU 486 abortion drug, which is only legal to use up to the eighth week of pregnancy, and the ulcer drug Cytotec, which is also known as misoprostol.

Abreu told police she got the drugs from a friend who had visited the Dominican Republic and that she took them over a period of three days.

Abortion practitioners have also misused misoprostol, also called Cytotec, to cause abortions. The maker of that drug, Searle, has issued warnings in both the United States and Australia that the misuse is dangerous for women.

Some abortion practitioners engage in what is known as "off-label" use because it has been found to be relatively effective in producing contractions.