Georgia’s abortion ban linked to Amber Thurman's death in ProPublica investigation: What to know
This story was updated to add new information.
Vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will visit Atlanta Friday to respond to the deaths of two Georgia women linked to the state’s abortion ban, according to a ProPublica investigation released this week.
Amber Thurman, 28, a nursing assistant and mother of a 6-year-old son died after doctors delayed necessary care due to Georgia's six-week abortion ban, says the story reported by Kavitha Surana. Medical providers stalled to provide care to treat the effects of a medication abortion, also known as a medical abortion, the investigation says.
After sharing Thurman's death, Surana reported a second story on another Georgia woman named Candi Miller who died as a result of not seeking medical care “due to the current legislation on pregnancies and abortions.”
To tell their stories, ProPublica reviewed medical documents, autopsies and official state committee reports, interviewed family and loved ones, spoke with government officials and consulted medical experts, doctors from across the state and U.S. and people inside hospitals.
Here's what the ProPublica investigation found and what to know about Georgia's abortion law.
ProPublica: Amber Thurman, Candi Miller die under Georgia's abortion law
ProPublica's investigation explores the stories of two women who died after Georgia's strict abortion law went into effect in July 2022. The law bans abortions after six week of pregnancy with few exceptions.
According to ProPublica, Thurman became pregnant with twins unexpectedly in 2022 and faced roadblocks to receiving reproductive care due to the state's ban. She went to North Carolina for a medication abortion but experienced rare complications after taking the prescribed abortion pills.
Thurman became septic in the hospital due to excess tissue in her uterus that did not shed from her body, causing a serious infection. Thurman needed a dilation and curettage, or D&C, a procedure in which tissue is removed from inside the uterus. However, Georgia's ban considers a D&C a felony if performed outside of specific circumstances and could land doctors behind bars for up to 10 years.
Thurman's health deteriorated for 20 hours before doctors finally took her to surgery. By then, it was too late, ProPublica's reporting says. Her heart stopped on the table.
Thurman's death was "preventable," according to Georgia’s maternal mortality review committee, which said the hospital's delay in providing the D&C due to state law "had a large impact on her fatal outcome," ProPublica reports.
Candi Miller was a 41-year-old Georgia woman with chronic health issues including lupus and hypertension that made carrying a pregnancy life-threatening.
Already a mother of three, Miller became pregnant in the fall of 2022. Fearing for her life, she did not want to keep the pregnancy. But she found that the exceptions to the Georgia abortion ban only applied to imminent and acute life-threatening emergencies and did not extend to chronic health conditions, even those that can become lethal in pregnancy, ProPublica reports.
Unwilling to wait until things became more dire, she opted out of going to a doctor's office for fear of legal repercussions and instead underwent abortion on her own, ordering pills online. She suffered a rare complication but was reticent to seek medical care, her family later told officials. She was found unresponsive on Nov. 12 at home.
An autopsy found fetal tissue in her uterus as a result of the incomplete abortion as well as a combination of pain pills. Her family said she had avoided seeking medical care “due to the current legislation on pregnancies and abortions.” The state committee also deemed her death “preventable,” reports ProPublica.
What does Georgia's abortion law say?
In Georgia, abortion is banned after six weeks with some exceptions. Georgia passed the six-week ban in November 2022, and it was upheld by the state supreme court in 2023.
The ban has some exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother up to 20 weeks. Critics say six weeks is too soon because studies have shown that women generally don't discover they are pregnant until they've at least missed one period, around five to six weeks into gestation. Some experts and healthcare workers have criticized the law as having vague, difficult-to-interpret language and restrictive stipulations around what qualifies as an "exception."
Some of the specific language that impacted Thurman's case is explored in-depth in ProPublica's report.
Supporters commend the legislation for correcting what they saw as unconstitutional laws under Roe v. Wade. Some believe life begins at conception, meaning they feel they are protecting the life of a baby in the womb. Other supporters say that abortion was too widely and loosely used before the law went into place or that their religious beliefs compel them to support restrictions. Supporters also maintain that the exceptions outlined in the bill are ample to protect the health of mothers and babies.
The "heartbeat" law, known as the LIFE Act, has been the subject of some back-and-forth in state courts, having initially been blocked by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney who previously ruled the ban "unequivocally unconstitutional" on the grounds it was introduced in 2019 before the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The higher court, however, determined in October of last year that the new precedent set by the reversal is now the standard by which to judge abortion-related matters in a 6-1 decision.
Responses to ProPublica's investigation
Some organizations issued statements in response to ProPublica's reporting.
Nancy Northup, President & CEO at the Center for Reproductive Rights said, in part: “Amber Thurman should be alive today. Her death was preventable—her doctors knew how to perform the very basic medical procedure needed to save her life, but felt their hands were tied because of the state’s abortion ban. The Georgia lawmakers who passed this ban are ultimately responsible for her death, and the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade."
Dr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs (AAPLOG) said, in part: "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. Despite taking the drugs as she was instructed and seeking timely care when she experienced complications, she still died."
What has Kamala Harris said about abortion bans?
Presidential candidate Kamala Harris responded to the ProPublica piece with a statement on social media Tuesday:
“A young mother from Georgia should be alive today, raising her son and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school," she said of Thurman. "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 will also be addressing abortion bans in a planned speech in Atlanta on Friday.
What has Donald Trump said about abortion bans?
"President Trump has always supported exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, which Georgia's law provides," the Trump campaign told USA TODAY in response to the death of Thurman. "With those exceptions in place, it’s unclear why doctors did not swiftly act to protect Amber Thurman’s life.”
Trump has often said he believes the issue should be left up to the states.
In late August, the former president criticized Florida's ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy in an interview with NBC, saying "I think the six-week is too short; it has to be more time." A day later, however, he announced he would vote against a ballot measure in his home state of Florida that would overturn the ban, citing concerns it would result in "ninth-month" abortions.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What to know about the death of Amber Thurman, Georgia abortion ban
