Opinion: An abortion ban killed her. Trump used Fox town hall to mock her grieving family.

Correction & clarification: A prior version of this column misspelled the name of Fox News host Harris Faulkner.

The death of Amber Thurman, a 28-year-old mother, has been linked directly to Georgia’s draconian abortion ban, a ban that exists because Donald Trump proudly oversaw the end of Roe. v. Wade during his presidency.

At a Fox News town hall focused on women’s issues – taped Tuesday in Atlanta and broadcast Wednesday – Trump, the network host and the town hall attendees treated Thurman’s death and her family’s grief like a laugh line.

Noting that Thurman’s family held a press call hosted by Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign before the Fox News event, host Harris Faulkner, with snark in her voice, said to Trump: “Amber Thurman’s family have come out on a press call, and they’re doing what’s called a prebuttal to our town hall right now.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Trump said, dismissively, as the crowd chuckled.

Then he said: “We’ll get better ratings, I promise.” And Faulkner and the crowd erupted in laughter.

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I’ve seen plenty of vile things happen during political campaigns, but this was several steps beyond twisted.

Who weighs the words of a grieving family or the weight of their grief on a ratings scale? Who laughs at a family speaking out about the death of their loved one?

It’s part and parcel of the darkness and cruelty Trump’s campaign has leaned into in these final weeks of the presidential race.

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Amber Thurman's tragic death was deemed 'preventable'

During Tuesday’s press call, Thurman’s mother, Shanette Williams, said: “Amber was not a statistic. She was loved by a family.”

Thurman died in 2022. Georgia’s abortion ban had forced her to travel to North Carolina for reproductive health services because she was just past Georgia’s six-week ban on abortions.

Thurman was given abortion pills, but developed a rare complication after she had returned to Georgia.

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According to a ProPublica report: “She showed up at Piedmont Henry Hospital in need of a routine procedure to clear (fetal tissue) from her uterus, called a dilation and curettage, or D&C. But just that summer, her state had made performing the procedure a felony, with few exceptions. Any doctor who violated the new Georgia law could be prosecuted and face up to a decade in prison. Thurman waited in pain in a hospital bed ... as doctors monitored her infection spreading, her blood pressure sinking and her organs beginning to fail. It took 20 hours for doctors to finally operate. By then, it was too late.”

ProPublica reported that Georgia’s maternal mortality review committee found Thurman’s death was “preventable” and said the hospital’s delay – due to the state’s abortion law – "had a large impact on her fatal outcome.”

Donald Trump easily laughs at a tragedy – remember that

There’s nothing funny about any of that. It’s a tragedy. But Trump, Faulkner and many in the all-female crowd at the town hall got a good chuckle out of Trump’s dismissive attitude and his “we’ll get better ratings” joke.

I hope voters are paying attention to these random acts of casual cruelty coming from Trump and the people around him. They’re the kind of things that rob us of our humanity.

They’re the kind of things voters should reject, thunderously.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: Trump boasts he'll get 'better ratings' than grieving family