Reproductive rights organisations were infuriated on Monday after ProPublica disclosed that a Georgia woman passed away as a result of receiving medical attention after a Georgia abortion was prohibited in the US state.
An official state commission blamed the deadly outcome on a “preventable” delay in executing a crucial treatment. In August 2022, 28-year-old Amber Nicole Thurman passed away during emergency surgery after developing an uncommon complication from abortion drugs.
Recently, a law was introduced in Georgia that makes administering dilatation and curettage (D&C) a felony offence, with some ambiguous and hard-to-interpret exceptions for medical professionals.
“Amber would be alive right now if it wasn’t for Donald Trump and Brian Kemp’s abortion ban,” said Mini Timmara, president of Reproductive Freedom for All. “They have blood on their hands.”
Reproductive rights are now at the forefront of the forthcoming presidential election following the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to repeal the nation’s abortion rights, which sparked a surge of bans and restrictions in 22 states.
According to ProPublica, this is the first officially recognised “preventable” abortion-related death, and the organisation will soon release information about a second case.
Although copies of the official reviews were obtained by ProPublica, they are not made available to the public.
Ricaria Baker, Thurman’s best friend, told ProPublica that the otherwise healthy medical assistant and mother of a six-year-old child decided to discontinue a twin pregnancy to maintain her newfound stability.
She had recently moved to a new apartment complex with her son, and she intended to start nursing school. She was compelled to seek care at a facility in North Carolina because Georgia’s six-week abortion law prevented her from getting a surgical abortion.
Due to traffic on the day of the surgery, Thurman’s hour-long travel was prolonged, causing her to miss her scheduled 15-minute window.
The clinic provided misoprostol and mifepristone for medication abortions. Although extremely safe, incredibly uncommon issues can happen.
Over several days, Thurman’s condition deteriorated, resulting in severe bleeding and blood vomiting. She was brought to Stockbridge’s Piedmont Henry Hospital.
When medical professionals discovered that some foetal tissue had not left her body, they diagnosed her with “acute severe sepsis.”
Thurman’s dilation and curettage procedure was postponed by the hospital for 17 hours, despite her rapidly declining health.
By the time they operated, the situation was so bad it necessitated open abdominal surgery. The doctor performed the operation and realised a hysterectomy was also required — but during the procedure, Thurman’s heart stopped.
Her mother thought back to her final words, “I promise you, you’ll look after my son.”
A “good chance” existed that Thurman’s life may have been saved by an earlier procedure, according to the findings of the state commission.
“Life of the mother” exceptions have widely proven inadequate, forcing women to cross state lines in desperate bids for lifesaving care.
“She died in a hospital, surrounded by medical providers who could have saved her life,” feminist author Jessica Valenti wrote on X. “This is what abortion bans do.”
