The cynicism of Kamala Harris and US media appears to know no bounds as they use young mother’s death to promote abortion

Vice President Kamala Harris has repeated the claims of various media in the US that a woman in Georgia died due to laws restricting abortion. It comes as the presidential election campaign heats up, with the abortion issue remaining one of the, if not the, most fundamental campaigning points, accompanied by various media rolling out “examples” of women who have died as a result of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, conveniently helping Harris who is campaigning with a passionately pro-abortion platform.

Amid the general cynicism of such an approach and the tactics being used by Harris and the media backing her, the case in Georgia, highlighted by ProPublica, is an exceedingly disingenuous assessment. What is undeniable is that in 2022, 28-year-old Amber Thurman, the mother to a 6-year-old boy, died a tragic death that it appears could certainly have been avoided.

After taking abortion pills for the twins she was carrying when about 9-weeks pregnant, complications arose and she was in pain and bleeding heavily. Tissue from the deceased twin babies – or foetuses – that remained in her uterus had caused an infection.

With the infection worsening, Thurman went to the emergency room five days after she experienced complications from the abortion pill, notes the Catholic News Agency (CNA). She needed a dilation and curettage – “D &C” – procedure to empty the uterus (and remove the remains of the twins) but doctors prevaricated for 20 hours to operate. Her condition worsened, including, haemorrhaging, and she died on the operating table.

A state medical review committee ruled her death “preventable”, which sounds entirely accurate. But according to the New York Times, in its article “It Was Only a Matter of Time Before Abortion Bans Killed Someone”, it was Georgia’s restrictions on abortion that solely bare responsibility, having delayed access to medical care and causing the poor young mother’s death.

ProPublica says that some doctors “wait to see if a miscarriage completes naturally before offering a D&C”, with its report suggesting that in some cases this is influenced by doctors fearing being “prosecuted for violating abortion bans”. But Georgia state law “explicitly allows abortions when the mother’s life or physical health is at risk”, CNA notes.

Dr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (AAPLOG) and a board-certified OB-GYN who has practiced for two decades, said that Thurman’s death was caused through the combination of medical negligence and legal abortion drugs.

“Amber Thurman’s tragic death, recently covered by multiple news organizations, was caused by side effects of legal abortion drugs and medical negligence, not pro-life laws,” Francis said in a 17 September statement.

None of which is being acknowledge by Harris and much of the media: MSNBC ran a story with the headline “Georgia’s ‘pro-life’ abortion ban literally killed a woman – and she won’t be the last”.

Harris blamed Thurman’s death on former President Donald Trump on 17 September, saying: “Women are bleeding out in parking lots, turned away from emergency rooms, losing their ability to ever have children again. 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.” 

CNA reports that Harris’ campaign has announced she will also speak on 20 September about Thurman’s death in Atlanta and also address the death of another Georgia woman, Candi Miller, who died after not seeking medical help following severe complications due to a chemical abortion. 

The Harris campaign clearly sees that there is more leverage to be had from the deaths of two women in Georgia.

According to the FDA warning label for the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, between 2.9 per cent and 4.6 per cent of women will visit the emergency room after taking the drugs, CNA reports.

Abortion pills have four times as many complications as surgical abortions, according to a 2023 report by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, an organisation that “advises and leads the pro-life movement with ground breaking scientific, statistical, and medical research”. As many as 1 in 5 women will suffer complications after a chemical abortion and as many as 15 per cent will experience haemorrhaging, while 2 per cent will experience infection. 

“The canard that abortion drugs are dangerous is a staple of anti-abortion propaganda, and conservatives may try to use it to deflect outrage over Thurman’s death,” the writer of the NYT article states. “I suspect that the anti-abortion movement will claim that she was killed by abortion pills and use her case to further its quest to outlaw them.”

Photo: US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks during a discussion hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 17 September 2024. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images.)

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