Amber Thurman’s Death Puts Abortion Laws in Spotlight Ahead of Election

The death of a young Georgia mother who waited 20 hours to be treated for complications after taking an abortion pill has once again put the issue of abortion in the spotlight ahead of November’s presidential election.

Amber Thurman, 28, died in August 2022—two weeks after Georgia enacted a strict abortion ban and criminalized the procedure. The ban followed the U.S. Supreme Court‘s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, stripping away constitutional protections for abortion.

Her death, reported by ProPublica on Monday, is the first publicly disclosed instance of an abortion-related death from delayed care. The outlet said it would soon publish details of a second case.

Thurman had sought treatment at a hospital for complications from taking an abortion pill. ProPublica reported that even as she developed sepsis, doctors at the hospital did not evacuate the remaining fetal tissue in her uterus with a procedure called dilation and curettage. She ultimately died on the operating table. An official state committee deemed her death “preventable,” according to ProPublica.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who has made reproductive rights central to her campaign for the White House, responded to the report by placing blame on former President Donald Trump, her opponent in November’s election.

Trump, who appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe, has repeatedly said he believes abortion laws should be left to the states.

On X, formerly Twitter, Harris wrote on Tuesday: “This is exactly what we feared when Roe v. Wade was struck down. In more than 20 states, Trump Abortion Bans prevent doctors from providing basic medical care.”

“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,” she added in a separate post.

The Trump campaign said that blame lies with the hospital for failing to provide lifesaving care.

“President Trump has always supported exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, which Georgia’s law provides,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump spokesperson, said in a statement to the Associated Press. “With those exceptions in place, it’s unclear why doctors did not swiftly act to protect Amber Thurman’s life.”

Harris also brought up Thurman’s case during an interview on Tuesday with members of the National Association of Black Journalists. “It appears the people who should have given her health care were afraid they’d be criminalized after the Dobbs decision came down,” she said.

The vice president may continue invoking Thurman’s death in the weeks leading up to Election Day, as Democrats seek to use the issue to rally voters, especially in battleground states such as Georgia.

Abortion is a key issue in November’s election, although most polls have found that the economy is considered the top issue for voters.

In a recent survey, half of the respondents in Georgia said the issue of abortion would be extremely important to how they vote in November’s election. The same survey found that the economy was the single most important election issue for most voters in swing states, with abortion ranking second.

Experts told Newsweek that Thurman’s death put a face to the issue of abortion access and could galvanize voters in the Peach State, where November’s election is expected to be close.

Thurman’s death “is likely to help with mobilization of Democrats,” Scott Ainsworth, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia (UGA), told Newsweek. He said if more instances of abortion-related deaths came to light, the issue would continue to remain in the spotlight.

“Expanding access to abortion-related services is a winning issue for Democrats,” Ainsworth added. “For a close race, as we have here in Georgia, any number of events can make a difference.”

Charles Bullock, another political science professor at UGA, said that “much as Laken Riley’s murder put a face on the immigration issue in Georgia, Amber Thurman’s death may put a face on access to abortion as an issue.”

He told Newsweek that “both of these tragic deaths have the potential to mobilize voters, even if they have no conversion effect.”

Democrats and abortion rights advocates in Georgia have urged people to respond to Thurman’s death at the polls.

Black women “must fight harder than ever before to defeat extremist politicians who oppose bodily autonomy,” Monica Simpson, the executive director of SisterSong, a reproductive rights organization in Atlanta, said in a statement.

“This November, Black women can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. Our lives depend on electing leaders who champion a Reproductive Justice Agenda so tragedies like the death of Amber Nicole Thurman, and those who have not yet been reported, never happen again,” SisterSong said in statement published on social media.

Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who lost Georgia’s 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial races to Republican Governor Brian Kemp, wrote on X: “We don’t have ballot initiatives, but we do have state leg elections. Republicans who support this heinous law must be fired in November. No exceptions.”