American woman died because of Georgia’s restrictive abortion laws, official investigation claims

Amber Thurman died in August 2022 after developing rare complications after taking the abortion pill to end her pregnancy.

Drama “avoidable”. A ProPublica article published Monday, September 17, reports that a woman died in a Georgia hospital after not receiving the necessary care due to the restrictive abortion laws in that American state. Amber Thurman, 28, had developed rare complications after taking the abortion pill to end her pregnancy.

She died in August 2022. An official commission considered that her death, “avoidable”was linked to a delay in performing the surgery that could have saved her. A law had just been passed making the procedure, called dilation and curettage, to empty the uterus, a crime, except in rare cases.

Amber Thurman, who was already the mother of a baby boy and wanted to become a nurse, had to travel to North Carolina for an abortion because of Georgia’s abortion ban after six weeks of pregnancy. After taking the abortion pill, she began bleeding more than expected and was rushed to the hospital. Doctors found that she had not expelled all of the fetal tissue and diagnosed a “acute sepsis”.

But despite her rapidly deteriorating condition, the hospital waited 17 hours before performing the dilation and curettage procedure. Thurman died during the procedure. According to ProPublica, which has seen confidential documents, this is the first death officially declared “avoidable” related to abortion in the United States. According to the Georgia State Commission, there were “good luck” that a procedure performed more quickly saves his life.

“These devastating bans” have “delayed the vital routine care she needed”Mini Timmaraju of the organization Reproductive Freedom for All denounced in a statement. Amber Thurman “should be alive today”added Nancy Northup of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “She died in hospital, surrounded by medical staff who could have saved her life.”wrote feminist author Jessica Valenti on the social network X. “This is the result of abortion bans.” Deeply overhauled by Donald Trump, the American Supreme Court gave states back the freedom to legislate locally on the issue in 2022.