The death of a woman in the US after complications following an abortion is, according to a report, due to the restrictive abortion law in the state of Georgia. Amber Nicole Thurman, 28, received medical help too late in August 2022 due to the legal situation, reported the research platform Propublica. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris sharply criticized the Supreme Court’s abolition of the nationwide right to abortion on Tuesday.
According to Propublica, Georgia was the first death in the United States that was officially classified as “preventable” in connection with an abortion. The research platform cited information from a committee in the southeastern state that investigated the case. Thurman had developed a rare complication after taking an abortion pill. She died during emergency surgery.
According to the committee’s assessment, the doctors performed a presumably life-saving procedure too late, the Propublica report said. A law had recently been passed in Georgia that criminalized curettage of the uterus and provided only a few exceptions. Doctors warn that the guidelines are vague and difficult to interpret.
“Amber would still be alive if (former President) Donald Trump and (Georgia Governor) Brian Kemp had not enforced the abortion ban,” said activist Mini Timmaraju of the nongovernmental organization Reproductive Freedom for All. “They have blood on their hands.”
Restrictive abortion laws came into force in Georgia and 21 other U.S. states after the Supreme Court in June 2022 struck down the nearly 50-year-old nationwide right to abortion and placed jurisdiction over abortion law in the hands of the states.
During his term in office, Trump nominated three conservative judges to the Supreme Court, which significantly changed the balance of power on the Supreme Court in favor of the conservatives and led to the decision against the nationwide right to abortion.
Thurman had traveled to North Carolina to have an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy because of Georgia’s abortion ban. However, in the days after taking an abortion pill, complications arose and she had to be hospitalized in Georgia.
Doctors diagnosed acute sepsis. Despite her rapid deterioration, they waited 17 hours before performing a curettage of her uterus, Propublica reported. Thurman died during the operation. “She died in the hospital, surrounded by medical personnel who could have saved her life,” wrote feminist author Jessica Valenti on the online service X. “This is the result of the abortion bans.”
“This is exactly what we feared when Roe (the nationwide right to abortion) was repealed,” said Vice President Harris. “Women are bleeding to death in parking lots, being turned away from emergency rooms, and losing their ability to ever have children again.” The Democratic Party’s presidential candidate is vehemently committed to reinstating the nationwide right to abortion.
Meanwhile, the non-governmental organization Physicians for Human Rights presented a report on the situation in the state of Florida after a ban on abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy was imposed there in April. According to the NGO’s findings, the new regulations lead to treatment for complicated pregnancies being delayed or refused altogether.
They “put both physicians and pregnant patients in this state at risk,” the report says. Doctors who violate the law face heavy fines and up to five years in prison. They can also lose their medical license.
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