Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday amplified claims by multiple media outlets that a woman has died as a result of pro-life laws in the United States. But the doctors They say Georgia woman Amber Thurman died from the abortion pill and medical negligence.
The controversial report of ProPublica claimed that Georgia’s abortion restrictions delayed access to medical care, causing the death of a woman named Amber Nicole Thurman. Thurman died at age 28 in 2022, after being hospitalized due to an infection after taking abortion pills, according to the report.
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According to the report, Thurman received the abortion pills out of state, in North Carolina, because she was more than six weeks pregnant. Georgia law limits abortion after six weeks, but Thurman was about nine weeks pregnant when she had the chemical abortion, according to the Washington Examiner.
Harris blamed of Thurman’s death to Donald Trump on Tuesday, saying: “Women are bleeding to death in parking lots, turned away from emergency rooms, losing their ability to have children again. Rape and incest survivors are told they cannot make decisions about what happens next to their bodies. And now the women are dying. “These are the consequences of Donald Trump’s actions.”
The Harris campaign announced that she will speak Friday about Thurman’s death in Atlanta, as well as that of another Georgia woman, Candi Millerwho died after failing to seek medical help following serious complications due to a chemical abortion.
What caused Amber Thurman’s death?
Some media Pro-life abortion restrictions were blamed for Thurman’s death, but Georgia law allows explicitly abortions when the life or physical health of the mother is at risk. Thurman had a chemical abortion in North Carolina prior to her arrival at the emergency room, and when she arrived, her unborn twins had no cardiac activity.
Dr. Christina Francis, executive director of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) and a board-certified OB-GYN who has practiced for two decades, said Thurman’s death “was caused by abortion medications.” legal”, as well as medical negligence.
“The tragic death of Amber Thurman, recently covered by multiple news organizations, was caused by the side effects of legal abortion medications and medical malpractice, not pro-life laws,” Francis said in a statement released Tuesday.
Thurman went to the emergency room five days after suffering complications from the abortion pill. According to ProPublicatissue remains from her deceased babies (unborn twins) were left in her uterus, causing an infection. Since there was no cardiac activity in the fetuses when Thurman arrived at the hospital, his unborn babies were no longer alive.
The doctors they considered a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure, which would have removed the twins’ remains. The next day, his doctors did not perform the D&C, and by the time he went to the operating room, more serious problems had developed, including bleeding. Since his arrival, the doctors took 20 hours in operating. He died on the operating table.
ProPublica interviewed Thurman’s best friend, Ricaria Baker, who accompanied Thurman to have the abortion. According to Baker, Thurman missed her scheduled D&C abortion at the North Carolina clinic because of traffic and was told by an employee to have a chemical abortion with the drug regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol. Baker notes that Thurman took the pills as she was told.
“Despite taking medications as prescribed and seeking medical attention in time when she experienced complications, she still died,” Francis said. “Instead of highlighting the dangers of these medications, which have caused numerous deaths, abortion advocates are trying to blame Georgia laws in their attempt to protect induced abortion at all costs.”
According to warning label of the FDA for the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, between 2.9% and 4.6% of women will visit the emergency room after taking them.
According to a 2023 report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, abortion pills have four times more complications than surgical abortions. One in five women will suffer complications after a chemical abortion and up to 15% will suffer bleeding, while 2% will suffer infections.
ProPublicawhich first reported the woman’s death, acknowledged in its initial report that “it is unclear from the available records why doctors waited to perform a D&C,” but cites Georgia’s limitations in abortion as the cause.
A state committee of 10 doctors said that Thurman’s death was avoidable and that the hospital’s delay influenced the fatal outcome.
In Francis’ view, it was doctors’ negligence and complications from the abortion pill that killed Thurman, not the state’s pro-life laws, which allow abortions and other life-saving medical procedures in cases where physical health or women’s lives are at risk.
Georgia state law also has other exceptions for abortions, including exceptions for rape and incest up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.
No fetal heartbeats were also detected in the nine-week-old unborn twins, meaning it would not have been an abortion.
“The state of Georgia “Amber Thurman’s case clearly allows doctors to intervene in medical emergencies or when there is no detectable fetal heartbeat, which applies to her,” Francis said. “Do not be fooled by those who advocate induced abortion over women’s health and safety.”
“This woman did not have to die,” said Dr. Susan Bane, another AAPLOG doctor. “Based on the timeline and her symptoms, (the D&C procedure) should have been done as soon as she could get to the hospital. “It was medical malpractice and had nothing to do with any type of law in Georgia or anywhere else.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA) called the rhetoric surrounding the deaths of Thurman and Miller “deadly misinformation.”
“We mourn the senseless loss of Amber, Candi and their unborn children. We agree that their deaths were preventable. But let’s be absolutely clear: Georgia law and all state pro-life laws ask doctors to act in circumstances similar to yours,” said Katie Daniel, SBA state policy director. “If abortion advocates were not spreading misinformation and confusion to score political points, the outcome may have been different.”
Do pro-life states ban emergency medical care for pregnant women?
No pro-life state prevents life-saving emergency medical treatments for pregnant women, according to a research institute, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
“Make no mistake: All state abortion bans currently in effect contain exceptions to ‘prevent the death’ or ‘preserve the life’ of the pregnant person,” Francis said. KFFformerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, is a leading health policy organization.
KFF outlines state abortion laws and details what exceptions pro-life states have.
Amid reports that women have been barred from medical care due to pro-life limits on abortion, the Instituto Charlotte Lozier investigated the claim and found that all pro-life states allow doctors to treat women with pregnancy emergencies according to their medical judgment.
“All state pro-life laws allow doctors to exercise medical judgment to treat women with emergencies during pregnancy. No law requires ‘imminence’ or ‘certainty’ before a doctor can act to save a patient’s life,” reads the September 13 Charlotte Lozier Institute fact sheet written by Tess Cox, Dr. Ingrid Skop and Mary Harned.
The institute found that all pro-life states allow emergency treatment during pregnancy-related emergencies, following reports of women allegedly not receiving the medical care they require in cases of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancies and other emergencies.
The institute found that all but five state laws included language allowing abortion when the woman’s health was in serious danger, while in states without this language, the law allows doctors to use medical judgment.” reasonable” to determine whether an abortion is necessary.
“All states with a strong pro-life law allow doctors to treat women suffering from miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, and the treatment of these conditions is not considered an abortion under any law,” the institute noted.
“Doctors and hospitals that fail to provide patients with necessary treatment in emergency circumstances may be committing malpractice,” the fact sheet noted.
The institute cites recent cases that raise concerns that state laws may be preventing pregnant women from receiving necessary care. A woman was turned away from a hospital several times before an ectopic pregnancy ruptured her fallopian tube. Other articles report cases of hospitals turning away women suffering from ectopic pregnancies, incomplete miscarriages, premature rupture of membranes, and other circumstances.
“While it is not always easy to determine from a news article whether medical malpractice occurred, state pro-life laws are clear: Doctors can intervene in medical emergencies,” the authors wrote.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.
Kate Quinones
Kate Quiñones is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency and a member of College Fix. She has publications in the Wall Street Journal, the Denver Catholic Register and CatholicVote. She graduated from Hillsdale College. She lives in Colorado with her husband.