Kamala Harris is speaking out in response to a report revealing the first preventable death linked to Georgia’s six-week abortion ban.
Already a single mom to a 6-year-old son and having just moved out of her family’s house ahead of enrolling in nursing school, Thurman decided it wasn’t the time to welcome two additional children.
— ProPublica (@propublica) September 16, 2024
With Georgia’s abortion ban in place, Thurman waited a few weeks to schedule her abortion in hopes the ban would be halted in court. When that didn’t happen, she finally scheduled an appointment in North Carolina by her ninth week.
The clinic was overwhelmed with patients from other states where abortion bans were in effect, which didn’t help when Thurman missed her appointment due to traffic. With no option to reschedule due to work, childcare, and lack of access to a car, Thurman opted for the clinic’s offer of abortion pills.
Typically safe, abortion pills run the risk of complications that can easily be handled during an in-clinic abortion procedure. However, the abortion bans altered that option, leaving Thurman with no way to receive adequate care. Several days after taking the pills, Thurman vomited blood and fainted at home.
“This young woman in Georgia should have received the care she needed and deserved, without delay,” Dr. Jamila Perritt, an OBGYN and president of Physicians for Reproductive Health, says.
“This tragedy is a stark reminder that as these legal restrictions continue to spread across the country, we will continue seeing devastating consequences, including more preventable deaths, changes in our healthcare landscape, and widening health inequities.” Perritt stressed that “complications following procedural or medication abortion are extremely rare,” and should they occur, it’s “critical that medical providers work to urgently ensure that all patients receive the timely, compassionate care they deserve, without fear of criminalization.”
However, Kemp is being called out on social media in response to the findings.
“You did this @GovKemp,” one critic wrote.
“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.”
Source: Black Enterprise
