Amber Nicole Thurman, who lived in Georgia, died just weeks after her state’s abortion ban went into effect—two years ago. Her death was later ruled “preventable” by a state committee that included 10 doctors, in response to an investigative report by ProPublica on Monday.
The 28-year-old medical assistant had just established a brand new level of stability for herself and her young son when she discovered she was pregnant with twins in 2022. After her pregnancy progressed beyond Georgia’s gestational limit, she took a road trip to North Carolina together with her best friend, where she obtained abortion pills. While complications from abortion pills are rare, they do occur. In Thurman’s case, not all of the pregnancy tissue was expelled from her uterus. She was later taken to Piedmont Henry Hospital in a suburb of Atlanta after vomiting blood and passing out, in response to ProPublica. She arrived showing signs of infection, including bleeding, pain, and falling blood pressure.
Nonetheless, Georgia’s strict abortion law, which made the obligatory dilation and curettage procedure a felony with few exceptions, delayed her care. Thurman suffered in a hospital bed for 20 hours before dying on the operating table.
Here’s every little thing to find out about Georgia’s abortion ban and the way it has, and can proceed to, impact those in need of reproductive medical care.
Georgia’s Abortion Ban
Georgia enforces a strict abortion ban under House Bill 481, also often called the “Heartbeat Bill.” This law prohibits most abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy, when cardiac activity can typically be detected in an embryo. The six-week ban often prevents individuals from accessing abortion services before they even realize they’re pregnant.
Exceptions to the law are limited to cases of rape, incest (with a filed police report), or when the mother’s life is in danger—criteria that should not rooted in science and overlook the fast-moving realities of medical emergencies. Doctors’ judgment might be called into query, as any physician who violates the Georgia law faces the specter of prosecution and as much as a decade in prison.
Amber Thurman, mother of a six-year-old son, was denied life-saving healthcare due to the overrunning of Roe v. Wade and Georgia’s abortion ban.
Amber needs to be here today.
Reproductive Care is healthcare. #WinWithBlackWomen #UniteforAmerica pic.twitter.com/gyg6bbbgkf
— Win With Black Women (@WinWithBLKWomen) September 20, 2024
Thurman’s death might have been prevented with a D&C, an easy 15-minute procedure to empty the contents of the uterus. Nonetheless, Georgia’s abortion ban made performing a D&C illegal unless it was for a “spontaneous” or “naturally occurring” miscarriage. Because Thurman had taken abortion pills, her miscarriage was deemed illegal to treat. She suffered in a hospital bed for 20 hours, developing sepsis and organ failure. By the point doctors finally treated her, it was too late.
The state’s principal anti-abortion lobbyist, Will Brewer, opposed altering the law, arguing that some pregnancy complications “work themselves out” and that doctors needs to be required to “pause and wait this out and see the way it goes.”
Despite multiple legal challenges for the reason that law was enacted in 2019, the Georgia Supreme Court allowed the ban to stay in effect as of late 2023. This has forced many patients to hunt care out of state or carry pregnancies against their will, further worsening Georgia’s maternal healthcare crisis. The state has certainly one of the best maternal mortality rates within the nation, and Black women are thrice more prone to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women.
Who Else Has Been Affected?
Thurman’s death marks the primary publicly reported case of a girl dying as a result of delayed care under abortion bans. Nonetheless, we don’t understand how many other women have faced similar fates, as such cases are sometimes obscured by secrecy, stigma, and confidentiality. Families who’ve lost family members could also be reluctant to come back forward as a result of the inevitable smears and scrutiny surrounding abortion-related deaths. Moreover, states enforcing abortion bans should not incentivized to reveal these fatalities.
Amber Thurman and Candi Miller are two Black moms who lost their lives in Georgia as a result of the state’s draconian abortion ban. Women who could have survived in the event that they had been capable of get the health care they needed.
These are the implications of Trump abortion bans. pic.twitter.com/SujMA5dDgf
— Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) September 19, 2024
While a state maternal mortality review board ruled Thurman’s death preventable, it was ProPublica’s investigation that exposed the true cause. Even Thurman’s family was unaware that her life might have been saved; the state had not informed them, and so they learned the main points from the ProPublica reporter.
