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The death of a 28-year-old pregnant woman from an infection has been blamed on “Trump abortion bans” by Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Amber Nicole Thurman, from Georgia, died two years ago after delays in her care as doctors grappled with the state’s restrictive abortion laws.
Her death was later ruled “preventable” by a state committee, which included 10 doctors, investigative outlet ProPublica reported on Monday.
Harris issued a statement Tuesday on what happened to Thurman, the mother of a six-year-old boy, and spoke of her story during an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists later in the day.
“This young mother should be alive, raising her son, and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school,” Harris said in a statement. “This is exactly what we feared when Roe was struck down. In more than 20 states, Trump Abortion Bans are preventing doctors from providing basic medical care.”
“Women are bleeding out in parking lots, turned away from emergency rooms, losing their ability to ever have children again,” she continued. “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.”
During his presidency, Trump nominated three justices to create the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. This conservative majority enabled the court to oveturn Roe v Wade in 2022 - the ruling that had guaranteed access to abortion nationwide. Some states began enacting legislation to restrict abortion after Roe was overturned.
Thurman, a medical assistant, was taken to Piedmont Henry Hospital in a suburb of Atlanta after she vomited blood and passed out in 2022, ProPublica reports. Doctors discovered Thurman had taken abortion medication and developed a rare complication in which there was some fetal tissue left in her uterus, according to the outlet’s investigation.
At that point, Thurman needed a procedure called dilation and curettage, which would allow doctors to remove the rest of the tissue, ProPublica reports. But Georgia had recently passed a law making the procedure a felony with few exceptions.
Doctors delayed Thurman’s care and finally operated 20 hours after she arrived at the hospital, according to ProPublica. She died on the operating table.
Piedmont Henry Hospital did not respond to requests for comment from ProPublica, according to the report. The Independent has contacted the hospital for comment.
Over the last two years, Thurman’s family members knew only that she died from an infection due to “retained products of conception,” ProPublica reports. Her loved ones only learned that medical experts deemed Thurman’s death preventable due to ProPublica’s reporting.
Her family is now focused on caring for Thurman’s son, according to ProPublica. Thurman’s mother told the outlet that the last words she heard her daughter say were “promise me you’ll take care of my son.”
Deaths caused by complications from abortion medication are exceedingly rare with 32 deaths reported to the Food and Drug Administration from 2000-2022. These deaths were reported regardless of whether the abortion medication played a role, according to ProPublica, and many of those recorded deaths were the result of other causes, such as drug overdose or homicide.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, also issued a statement in response to the ProPublica report.
“Amber Nicole Thurman—a mother to a 6-year-old son—died after routine medical care was delayed,” Senator Warren wrote. “Her doctors feared criminal prosecution under Georgia’s abortion ban. Her death was preventable. Donald Trump said abortion bans are a ‘beautiful thing.’”
This summer, Trump called states enacting laws restricting abortion access “a beautiful thing to watch.”
The Republican presidential candidate has spread outrageous false claims about abortion including last week when he said that some states executed babies after birth during the debate against Harris.
Since the fall of Roe, pregnant people have faced significant barriers to abortion access which can have life-altering, and at times life-threatening, consequences.
In states where there are little to no exceptions to abortion bans, people are being forced to continue with life-threatening pregnancies that are not viable. People living in more than 700 counties must travel more than 200 miles to access their nearest abortion clinic, according to the Myers Abortion Facility Database by Middlebury College.
The Independent has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
