By The family of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who tragically passed away after taking an abortion pill, is urging Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, to stop politicizing her death. Thurman’s family believes the focus should be on the consequences of medical malpractice, not abortion politics in a desperate effort to help Democrats at the polls.
Amber Thurman, 28, died in 2022 following complications from a medication-induced abortion. Her stepfather, Elijah Warren, a mental health technician, expressed his frustration with how her story is being used by the Democratic campaign, writes The New York Post.
Kamala Harris referenced Thurman’s story during a September speech in Georgia and on a podcast appearance, asserting that “she should be alive today.” However, Harris has been criticized for inaccuracies, such as claiming that doctors are forced to wait until patients are at death’s door before acting. Walz also incorrectly described Thurman’s situation during the vice-presidential debate, misstating details about her journey for the abortion.
“I can see [Harris] using that as the only tool in Georgia against Trump,” Thurman’s stepfather, Elijah Warren, 43, who works as a mental health technician, told The Post, adding that the story is “being overused.”
“She is going to push that; I expect it. But it’s too much. It’s kind of like a funeral happening over and over again every time I see that.”
Democrats have raised 28-year-old Thurman’s case as an example of the dangers of abortion laws applied by some states after the overturning of the federal abortion statute in 2022.
Thurman, already a single mother to a 6-year-old son, went to a hospital in August that year because she had an extremely rare reaction from taking an abortion pill, which resulted in her not expelling all the fetal tissue from her body.
Thurman’s family believes the circumstances of her death stemmed more from medical neglect than legislative failures. “They should have just cleaned the tissue; that would have saved her life,” Warren told The Post.
Thurman’s case reveals less about abortion laws and more about the dangers associated with abortion, especially the abortion pill. At nine weeks pregnant, she drove to North Carolina for a surgical abortion but missed her appointment and was instead prescribed the abortion pills Mifepristone and Misoprostol.
Thurman followed the medical advice given to her but soon experienced severe complications after taking the pills. She was hospitalized days later and ultimately died of septic shock after the hospital delayed her treatment for 20 hours, uncertain if it would violate Georgia’s restrictive abortion laws even though there was little question that it would.
Georgia Republicans, including state Senator Ed Setzler, have accused the Democratic ticket of exploiting Thurman’s tragedy for political purposes, pointing to Georgia’s 2019 LIFE Act, which they argue could have prevented her death if followed properly.
The family has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Piedmont Henry Hospital, where Thurman was treated. The hospital has since updated its policies to better address medical emergencies related to abortion but denies providing legal advice to its staff.
Attorney Ben Crump, representing the family, condemned the hospital’s inaction, saying Thurman was left to “cry and vomit and turn blue for 20 hours.” A report by Georgia’s maternal mortality review committee concluded that Amber’s death was preventable.
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