Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday that the death of a young Georgia mother who died after waiting 20 hours for a hospital to treat her complications from an abortion pill shows the consequences of Donald Trump's actions.
Amber Thurman's death, first reported Monday by ProPublica , occurred just two weeks after Georgia's strict abortion ban was enacted in 2022 following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn nationwide abortion rights. Trump appointed three of the justices who made that decision and has repeatedly said he believes states should decide abortion laws .
"This young mother should be alive, raising her son, and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school," Harris said in a statement. "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."
Harris is likely to continue highlighting Thurman's case as Democrats try to use the issue of abortion access to motivate women voters.
The federal government has determined that dozens of pregnant women have been illegally turned away from emergency rooms, and the number of cases spiked in abortion ban states like Texas and Missouri, following the Supreme Court's ruling. An Associated Press report found that women have been left to miscarry in public bathrooms, wait for treatment in their cars or told by doctors to seek care elsewhere. Women have developed infections or lost part of their reproductive system after hospitals in abortion ban states delayed emergency abortions.
