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What to know about Amber Thurman’s death, Georgia abortion ban

Vaseline October 2, 2024

This story has been updated to add new information.

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will visit Atlanta on Friday to respond to the deaths of two Georgia women linked to the state’s abortion ban, according to a ProPublica investigation released this week.

Amber Thurman, 28, a nursing assistant and mother of a 6-year-old son, died after doctors delayed necessary care due to Georgia’s six-week abortion ban, according to Kavitha Surana’s story. Medical providers stopped providing care to treat the effects of a medication abortion, also called a medical abortion, the study found.

After sharing Thurman’s death, Surana reported a second story about another Georgia woman named Candi Miller who died because she did not seek medical care “due to current laws regarding pregnancies and abortions.”

To tell their stories, ProPublica reviewed medical records, autopsies and official state commission reports, interviewed family and loved ones, spoke to government officials and consulted medical experts, doctors from across the state and the U.S. and people in hospitals.

Here’s what the ProPublica investigation found and what you need to know about Georgia’s abortion law.

ProPublica: Amber Thurman and Candi Miller die under Georgia abortion law

ProPublica’s investigation examines the stories of two women who died after Georgia’s strict abortion law took effect in July 2022. The law prohibits abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, with some exceptions.

According to ProPublica, Thurman unexpectedly became pregnant with twins in 2022 and faced roadblocks to receiving reproductive care due to the state ban. She went to North Carolina for a medication abortion, but experienced rare complications after taking the prescribed abortion pills.

Thurman became septic in the hospital due to excess tissue in her uterus that did not excrete from her body, causing a serious infection. Thurman needed a dilation and curettage, or D&C, a procedure that removes tissue from the uterus. However, Georgia’s ban considers a D&C a crime if carried out outside specific circumstances, which could land doctors behind bars for up to ten years.

Thurman’s health deteriorated for 20 hours before doctors finally allowed her to operate. By then it was too late, according to ProPublica reporting. Her heart stopped on the table.

Thurman’s death was “preventable,” according to Georgia’s Maternal Death Review Board, which said the hospital’s delay in providing the D&C due to state law “had a major impact on her fatal outcome,” ProPublica reports.

Candi Miller was a 41-year-old Georgia woman with chronic health problems, including lupus and high blood pressure, that made a pregnancy life-threatening.

Miller was already a mother of three children and became pregnant in the fall of 2022. She did not want to continue the pregnancy out of fear for her life. But she found that the exceptions to Georgia’s abortion ban only applied to imminent and acute life-threatening emergencies and did not extend to chronic health conditions, even if they could become fatal during pregnancy, ProPublica reports.

Unwilling to wait for things to become even more dire, she decided not to go to a doctor’s office for fear of legal consequences and instead had an abortion herself and ordered pills online. She suffered a rare complication but was hesitant to seek medical care, her family later told officials. She was found unconscious at home on November 12.

An autopsy found fetal tissue in her uterus as a result of the incomplete abortion, as well as a combination of painkillers. Her family said she had avoided seeking medical care “due to current laws regarding pregnancies and abortions.” The state commission also deemed her death “preventable,” ProPublica reports.

What does Georgia’s abortion law say?

In Georgia, abortion is prohibited after six weeks, 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 has some exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother up to twenty weeks. Critics say six weeks is too early because research has shown that women generally don’t discover they are pregnant until they have missed at least one period, about five to six weeks into pregnancy. Some experts and health professionals have criticized the law for containing vague, difficult-to-interpret language and restrictive provisions on what qualifies as an “exception.”

Some of the specific language that influenced Thurman’s case is explored in depth in ProPublica’s report.

Advocates credit the legislation for correcting what they saw as unconstitutional laws under Roe v. Wade. Some believe that life begins at conception, which means they feel they are protecting the life of a baby in the womb. Other advocates say abortion was used too widely and loosely before the law took effect, or that their religious beliefs force them to support restrictions. Advocates also argue that the exceptions outlined in the bill are more than sufficient to protect the health of mothers and babies.

The “heartbeat” law, known as the LIFE Act, has been the subject of some back-and-forth in state courts after it was initially blocked by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who previously called the ban “unequivocally unconstitutional ‘ ruled on the Because it was introduced in 2019 before the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

However, the higher court ruled last October that the new precedent set by the reversal is now the standard for reviewing abortion-related cases in a 6-1 decision.

Reactions to ProPublica’s investigation

Some organizations have issued statements in response to ProPublica’s reporting.

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 very basic medical procedure needed to save her life, but felt their hands were tied because of the state’s abortion ban. The Georgia lawmakers who passed this ban are ultimately responsible for her death, and 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 covered by multiple news organizations, was caused by side effects of legal abortion medications and medical negligence, not by despite her took medication as instructed and sought timely care when she experienced complications, she still died.”

What has Kamala Harris said about abortion bans?

Presidential candidate Kamala Harris responded to the ProPublica piece on Tuesday with a statement on social media:

“A young mother from Georgia should still be alive today, raising her son and pursuing her dream of going to nursing school,” she said of Thurman. children again. Survivors of rape and incest are 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.”

Harris will also address the abortion ban in a planned speech in Atlanta on Friday.

What has Donald Trump said about abortion bans?

“President Trump has always supported exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, which are provided for under Georgia law,” the Trump campaign told USA TODAY in response to Thurman’s death. “With these exceptions, it is unclear why doctors did not take swift action to protect Amber Thurman’s life.”

Trump has often said he believes the issue should be left to the states.

In late August, in an interview with NBC, the former president criticized Florida’s ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, saying, “I think the six weeks is too short; there needs to be more time.” However, a day later he announced that he would vote against a ballot measure in his home state of Florida that would overturn the ban because he was concerned it would result in “ninth month” abortions.