Harris returns to Atlanta to speak on abortion rights
Vice President Kamala Harris plans to return to Atlanta, where she will lead a discussion on abortion rights.
Fox – 5 Atlanta
A young Georgia mother has died because of the state’s strict abortion laws, leaving behind a six-year-old son, according to a ProPublica investigation released Monday.
The story, reported by Kavitha Surana, centers on the life and death of Amber Thurman, a 28-year-old nursing assistant and nursing student who died because doctors were late in providing the woman with necessary care following complications from a medication abortion, the investigation found.
In a second article, Surana reported on another Georgia woman named Candi Miller who died because she did not seek medical care “due to current pregnancy and abortion laws.”
To tell their stories, ProPublica reviewed medical documents, autopsies and official reports from state committees, interviewed family members and loved ones, spoke with government officials and consulted medical experts, doctors from across the state and the U.S. and people in hospitals.
Following ProPublica’s investigation, presidential candidate Kamala Harris plans to give a speech in Atlanta on Friday to talk about reproductive freedoms and abortion bans, her campaign team announced.
Here’s what ProPublica’s investigation found and what you should know about Georgia’s abortion law.
ProPublica: Amber Thurman and Candi Miller die because of Georgia abortion law
ProPublica’s investigation follows the stories of two women who died after Georgia’s strict abortion law went into effect in July 2022. The law bans abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy with few exceptions.
According to ProPublica, Thurman unexpectedly became pregnant with twins in 2022 and had no way to receive reproductive care due to the state’s ban. She went to North Carolina to have a medication abortion, but experienced rare complications after taking the prescribed abortion pills.
Thurman developed sepsis in the hospital because excess tissue in her uterus did not shed on its own, causing a severe infection. Thurman had to undergo a curettage, a procedure that removes tissue from the uterus. However, this procedure was recently made a crime if not performed under certain circumstances, and doctors can spend up to 10 years behind bars.
Thurman’s condition deteriorated for 20 hours before doctors were finally able to operate on her. But by then it was too late and her heart stopped on the table, ProPublica’s report said. The Georgia Maternal Mortality Review Committee deemed her death “preventable” and said the hospital’s delay in performing the D&C “had a major impact on her fatal outcome,” ProPublica reports.
Candi Miller was a 41-year-old Georgia woman with chronic health problems such as lupus and high blood pressure that made pregnancy life-threatening. When Miller became pregnant in the fall of 2022, she was already a mother of three children. She discovered that exceptions to Georgia’s ban only applied to immediate and acute life-threatening emergencies and not to chronic health conditions, including those that can be fatal during pregnancy, ProPublica reports.
Not wanting to wait until the situation got worse, she forwent any medical treatment for fear of legal consequences and instead underwent an abortion herself by ordering the pills online. She suffered at home for days until she was found unconscious on November 12.
An autopsy found fetal tissue in her uterus, which was the result of the incomplete abortion and a combination of painkillers. Her family said she avoided seeking medical help “due to current pregnancy and abortion legislation.” The state committee deemed her death “preventable,” ProPublica reports.
What does Georgia’s abortion law say?
Georgia bans abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Georgia passed the six-week ban in November 2022, and it was upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2023.
The ban allows for some exceptions for rape, incest and the mother’s health up to 20 weeks. Critics say six weeks is too early, as studies have shown that women generally do not find out they are pregnant until they have missed at least one period, around the fifth to sixth week of pregnancy. Some experts and health workers criticize the law for containing vague, difficult-to-interpret language and restrictive provisions on what counts as an “exception.”
Some of the specific language that influenced Thurman’s case is examined in detail in ProPublica’s report.
Supporters praise the bill because it corrects laws they say were unconstitutional in Roe v. Wade. Some believe that life begins at conception and say they protect the life of a baby in the womb. Other supporters say that abortion was too widespread and loosely administered before the law was enacted, or that their religious beliefs compel them to support restrictions. Supporters also claim that the exemptions provided in the bill are sufficient to protect the health of mothers and babies.
The “heartbeat” law, known as the LIFE Act, has been the subject of some battle in the state courts after it was initially blocked by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who had previously declared the ban “clearly unconstitutional” on the grounds that it was introduced in 2019 before the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
However, the higher court ruled in a 6-1 decision last October that the new precedent set by the repeal now serves as the standard for adjudicating abortion-related matters.
What did Kamala Harris say about abortion bans?
Presidential candidate Kamala Harris responded to the ProPublica article with a statement on social media on Tuesday:
“A young Georgia mother should be alive today, raising her son and pursuing her dream of going to nursing school,” she said of Thurman. “Women are bleeding to death in parking lots, being turned away from emergency rooms, and losing their ability to ever have children again. Survivors of rape and incest are being told they can’t choose what happens to their bodies. And now women are dying. These are the consequences of Donald Trump’s actions.”
Harris will also address the deaths in a speech scheduled for Friday in Atlanta.
What did Donald Trump say about abortion bans?
“President Trump has consistently supported exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother provided by Georgia law,” the Trump campaign told USA TODAY in response to Thurman’s death. “Given these exceptions, it is unclear why doctors did not act quickly to protect Amber Thurman’s life.”
Trump has often stressed that he believes the issue should be left to the states.
In late August, the former president criticized Florida’s ban on abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy in an interview with NBC, saying, “I think six weeks is too short; there has to be more time.” A day later, however, he announced that he would vote against a referendum in his home state of Florida that would repeal the ban, fearing it would lead to “ninth-month” abortions.
Reactions to ProPublica’s investigation
Some organizations responded to ProPublica’s reporting with statements.
Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in part, “Amber Thurman should be alive today. Her death was preventable – her doctors knew how to perform the basic medical procedures needed to save her life, but they felt their hands were tied by the state’s abortion ban. The Georgia legislators who passed that ban are ultimately responsible for her death, as are the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.”
Dr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs (AAPLOG), said in part, “The tragic death of Amber Thurman, recently reported by several news outlets, was caused by side effects of legal abortion drugs and medical negligence, not pro-life laws. Even though she took the drugs as prescribed and sought timely treatment when complications arose, she died. Rather than pointing out the dangers of these drugs that have caused numerous deaths, abortion advocates instead seek to blame Georgia state laws to protect induced abortions at all costs.”
