ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Vice President Kamala Harris will be back in Atlanta Friday to discuss abortion rights.
The visit comes on the heels of a viral article from non-profit news outlet ProPublica.
The report says the deaths of two pregnant Georgia women could’ve been prevented if doctors were able to provide unrestricted abortion-related medical care.
Amber Thurman’s death occurred just two weeks after Georgia’s strict abortion ban was enacted in 2022 following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn nationwide abortion rights.
Thurman sought help at the hospital for complications from taking an abortion pill two weeks after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law that mostly outlaws abortion and criminalized performing one. Even as Thurman developed sepsis, ProPublica reported, doctors at the hospital did not evacuate the remaining fetal tissue in her uterus with a procedure called a dilation and curettage, or DandC. She died on the operating table, shortly after asking her mother to take care of her 6-year-old son. ProPublica said it will release another report on an abortion-related death in the coming days.
Thurman’s death is the first publicly reported instance of a woman dying from delayed care.
Thurman’s case is under review with the state’s maternal mortality commission. The suburban Atlanta hospital that reportedly delayed her treatment has not been cited by the federal government for failing to provide stabilizing treatment to a pregnant patient anytime within the last two years, an AP review of federal documents found.
Shawana Moore says after more than a decade in women’s healthcare, the state’s six-week abortion ban with few exceptions goes against everything she learned in medical school.
“It’s disheartening and heartbreaking as a medical professional,” Moore said.
The family of Candi Miller, the other woman cited in the article, said doctors told her another pregnancy could kill her. She ordered abortion pills online, but there were complications. She needed a procedure to clear tissue from her uterus and stave off sepsis. She was bed ridden and in extreme pain before she died. Family told the coroner she was afraid to visit a doctor because of Georgia anti abortion laws.
Georgia’s LIFE Act is one of the most restrictive laws in the nation. Doctors could face felony charges and a decade in prison if they perform a procedure after a heartbeat is detected.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp defended the act, saying it “not only expanded support for expectant mothers but also established clear exceptions, including providing necessary care in the event of a medical emergency.”
“This young mother should be alive, raising her son, and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school,” Vice President 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.”
“I truly believe we’ll hear about more stories for many years to come because of the overturn of Roe V. wade,” Moore said.
The Trump campaign said on Tuesday that fault rests with the hospital for failing to provide life-saving treatment.
“President Trump has always supported exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, which Georgia’s law provides,” Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “With those exceptions in place, it’s unclear why doctors did not swiftly act to protect Amber Thurman’s life.”
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