28-year-old dies because doctors hesitated for too long

“Her death could have been prevented”

Doctors wait 20 hours – 28-year-old dies

A report from a US research platform is causing a stir: a young mother may have died due to strict abortion laws.

The death of a woman in the US following complications from an abortion could be due to the state of Georgia's restrictive abortion law, according to a report. At least two women are said to have died in the state so far after they did not have access to legal abortions and timely medical care, reports the US research platform “Propublica”.

For example, 28-year-old Amber Nicole Thurman. In August 2022, she received medical help too late due to the legal situation. Propublica cited information from a state committee that investigated the case.

Thurman traveled to the state of North Carolina to have an abortion because of Georgia's ban on abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy. However, rare complications arose in the days after taking the abortion pill and she had to be hospitalized in Atlanta, Georgia.

She died there during an emergency operation. According to the committee's assessment, the doctors carried out a presumably life-saving procedure too late, it said in the “Propublica” report.

Accordingly, the doctors diagnosed Thurman with acute sepsis. But despite the rapid deterioration of her health, they waited 20 hours before performing the necessary uterine scraping, which ultimately resulted in Thurman's death. The 28-year-old leaves behind a six-year-old son.

A law had recently been passed in Georgia that criminalizes the removal of the uterus and only provides for a few exceptions. Doctors warned that the guidelines were vague and difficult to interpret.

“Amber would still be alive if (former President) Donald Trump and (Georgia Governor) Brian Kemp had not enforced the abortion ban,” said activist Mini Timmaraju of the NGO Reproductive Freedom for All. “They have blood on their hands.”

“She died in the hospital, surrounded by medical staff who could have saved her life,” wrote feminist author Jessica Valenti on the online service X. “This is the result of the abortion bans.”

Several politicians, including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, also commented on the case on social media. “Her death could have been prevented,” Warren said. The doctors feared criminal prosecution due to the abortion ban in Georgia and therefore did not act in a timely manner.

Restrictive abortion regulations came into force in Georgia and 21 other US states after the Supreme Court in June 2022 abolished the nationwide right to abortion that had existed for almost 50 years and placed jurisdiction over abortion rights in the hands of the states.

The issue of abortion is also an important one for the presidential election in November. “The government, and certainly Donald Trump, should certainly not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” Democratic candidate Kamala Harris said in a recent TV debate. She promised that if she won the election, she would enshrine the right to abortion in law. To do this, Harris would need a corresponding majority in Congress. Trump, on the other hand, has repeatedly stated that the issue of abortion is a matter for the states.