By Samuel Short September 18, 2024 at 3:12pm
Vice President Kamala Harris’ official X account is being called out for a post from Wednesday in which she misconstrued a story about a pregnant woman who died as a result of complications from an abortion.
The woman in question — 28-year-old Amber Nicole Thurman — died in August 2022 at Piedmont Henry Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Thurman had taken abortion pills after learning she was pregnant with twins.
After experiencing complications from fetal tissue still being present in her body, she died.
ProPublica reported on Thurman on Monday as supposed proof of Georgia’s abortion laws, passed that summer of 2022, being deadly to expectant mothers.
After the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v Wade with the Dobbs v Jackson decision in June 2022 effectively returning the issue of abortion back to the state level, many states passed bans on abortions under varying circumstances.
Georgia law at the time banned abortions after six weeks.
As ProPublica reported in their piece, Georgia also had laws criminalizing certain procedures from being performed under certain circumstances.
In the case of Thurman, her doctors needed to perform a dilation and curettage, or D&C, to clear the tissue. Doctors were unsure if the procedure was legal under Georgia law as it allowed for doctors to remove “a dead unborn child” that came from a “spontaneous abortion” in “naturally occurring” circumstances like stillbirth or miscarriage.
Doctors were not sure what to do with the fetal tissue left in Thurman as her abortion was not spontaneous; it was deliberate from taking abortion pills.
Thurman passed away at the hospital while a maternal mortality review committee said after the fact Thurman had a “good chance” of living had the D&C been performed earlier.
While ProPublica reported the story Monday stating, “Piedmont did not have a policy to guide doctors on how to interpret the state abortion ban when Thurman arrived for care,” Harris seized the opportunity to blast her opponent for the forthcoming November genera election, former President Donald Trump.
The former president is often credited with appointing the justices to SCOTUS who were pivotal in overturning Roe.
A young mother from Georgia should be alive today, raising her son and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school.
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.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 18, 2024
This is obviously an incredibly disingenuous take on Thurman’s death as Harris leaves out one critical piece of information: All of the issues stemmed from taking abortion pills.
Thurman’s death did not result from Georgia law forcing her to carry a child to term.
She chose to have an abortion and the complications from an abortion saw her tragically lose her life.
Conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey responded, calling her post, “malicious disinformation.”
Malicious disinformation. This woman died from her abortion.
She tragically tried to abort her twins via a medication abortion. As is too often the case, parts of the baby were left inside her, which caused her to suffer from fatal sepsis. Yes, she should have received a D&C and… https://t.co/bH9JYTELOt
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) September 18, 2024
As Stuckey notes, Thuman’s death is abortion-related, not about any actual law preventing one.
“She tragically tried to abort her twins via a medication abortion. As is too often the case, parts of the baby were left inside her, which caused her to suffer from fatal sepsis,” Stuckey continued. “Yes, she should have received a D&C and antibiotics. But that is not the fault of any Georgia law, which fully permits a D&C when the baby has already passed.
“She died because of the abortion pills and because of the negligence of doctors. She did not die because of any pro-life law.”
It seems that the issues at hand here are: The abortion itself, likely hospital incompetence and bureaucratic red tape.
Harris is so incredibly vague in her post and does not link her followers to any source on Thurman’s story because she knows the truth and doesn’t want it out.
“Malicious disinformation” is the perfect way to describe that.
Sam Short is an Instructor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London.
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