by Jeroslyn JoVonn
September 17, 2024
Kamala Harris is speaking out in response to a report revealing the first preventable death linked to Georgia’s six-week abortion ban.
Georgia’s maternal mortality committee has reported the first preventable death linked to the state’s six-week abortion ban in 2022.
ProPublica released a troubling report on Monday, which detailed the abortion-related death of one woman who died right after the state’s near-total ban took effect. Amber Nicole Thurman was 28 when she learned she was six weeks pregnant with twins. The reveal came just days after Georgia’s abortion ban went into effect in July 2022.
Already a single mom to a 6-year-old son and having just moved out of her family’s house ahead of enrolling in nursing school, Thurman decided it wasn’t the time to welcome two additional children.
“When she learned she was pregnant with twins in the summer of 2022, she quickly decided she needed to preserve her newfound stability,” Thurman’s best friend, Ricaria Baker, shared.
Amber Thurman went to the hospital with telltale signs of sepsis. It took 20 hours for doctors to intervene with a dilation and curettage procedure after abortion became a felony in Georgia.
By then, it was too late.https://t.co/yvgl7iu3KM
— ProPublica (@propublica) September 16, 2024
With Georgia’s abortion ban in place, Thurman waited a few weeks to schedule her abortion in hopes the ban would be halted in court. When that didn’t happen, she finally scheduled an appointment in North Carolina by her ninth week.
The clinic was overwhelmed with patients from other states where abortion bans were in effect, which didn’t help when Thurman missed her appointment due to traffic. With no option to reschedule due to work, childcare, and lack of access to a car, Thurman opted for the clinic’s offer of abortion pills.
Typically safe, abortion pills run the risk of complications that can easily be handled during an in-clinic abortion procedure. However, the abortion bans altered that option, leaving Thurman with no way to receive adequate care. Several days after taking the pills, Thurman vomited blood and fainted at home.
She was transported to the hospital by ambulance, where tests revealed remaining tissue in her uterus and a diagnosis of sepsis, a life-threatening infection that is a leading cause of maternal death. Thurman required a routine abortion procedure called dilation and curettage (D&C) to save her life, but Georgia’s ban had recently made it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Thurman’s heart stopped during the procedure, 20 hours after doctors finally deemed her condition life-threatening enough to warrant an operation to avoid prison time.
“This young woman in Georgia should have received the care she needed and deserved, without delay,” Dr. Jamila Perritt, an OBGYN and president of Physicians for Reproductive Health, says.
“This tragedy is a stark reminder that as these legal restrictions continue to spread across the country, we will continue seeing devastating consequences, including more preventable deaths, changes in our healthcare landscape, and widening health inequities.” Perritt stressed that “complications following procedural or medication abortion are extremely rare,” and should they occur, it’s “critical that medical providers work to urgently ensure that all patients receive the timely, compassionate care they deserve, without fear of criminalization.”
In July 2022, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) expressed being “overjoyed” that his ban would take effect, asserting that the state would keep women “safe, healthy, and informed.” A spokesperson claims the report on Thurman’s death was merely a “fear-mongering campaign.”
However, Kemp is being called out on social media in response to the findings.
“You did this @GovKemp,” one critic wrote.
“Every SCOTUS Justice who voted to repeal Roe is responsible for her death along with every Republican in GA who voted for the draconian law that contributed,” added someone else. “It’s 2024, and Republicans have taken is back to the days when women die in pregnancy because they can’t get care.”
Abortion rights are among the forefront issues during the 2024 election, with Vice President Kamala Harris calling Thurman’s death a consequence of the Donald Trump administration.
“This young mother should be alive, raising her son, and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school,” Harris said in a statement.
“Women are bleeding out in parking lots, turned away from emergency rooms, losing their ability to ever have children again. Survivors of rape and incest are being told they cannot make decisions about what happens next to their bodies. And now women are dying. These are the consequences of Donald Trump’s actions.”
