Kamala Repeatedly Lies, Blames Pro-Life Laws For Georgia Women’s Deaths

Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly claimed Friday that Amber Thurman died because of Georgia’s pro-life law protecting unborn babies, falsely stating that Thurman’s doctors could have gone to jail for “providing Amber the care that she needed.”

“Under the Trump abortion ban, her doctors could have faced up to a decade in prison for providing Amber the care she needed,” Harris claimed on Friday, as she spoke in Atlanta, Georgia. “Understand what a law like this means. Doctors have to wait until the patient is at death’s door before they take action.”

Harris was referring to a Georgia woman who died due to complications from the abortion pill, mifepristone. Following a ProPublica report on Thurman’s death, media outlets, abortion activists, and Democratic lawmakers have used Thurman’s death, and the death of another Georgia woman named Candi Miller, to claim that pro-life laws are endangering women.

But there are no laws in the United States that prevent doctors from exercising their medical judgement in treating women experiencing pregnancy emergencies. Georgia specifically allows doctors to perform an abortion if “a physician determines, in reasonable medical judgment, that a medical emergency exists.”

Harris repeatedly characterized Thurman’s death as the direct result of President Donald Trump’s pro-life policies, though Trump did not have anything to do with Georgia’s 2019 law protecting unborn babies with a heartbeat.

Kamala lies about the death of Amber Thurman, falsely claiming that “under the Trump abortion ban, her doctors could have faced up to a decade in prison for providing Amber the care she needed.” pic.twitter.com/1uLa3XE6ko

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) September 20, 2024

Pro-life activists have pushed back on claims like those Harris made Friday.

“We mourn the senseless loss of Amber, Candi, and their unborn children,” said SBA Pro-Life America’s State Policy Director Katie Daniel. “We agree their deaths were preventable. But let’s be absolutely clear: Georgia’s law and every pro-life state law calls on doctors to act in circumstances just like theirs. If abortion advocates weren’t spreading misinformation and confusion to score political points, it’s possible the outcome would have been different.”

“Amber and Candi deserve to be thriving together with their children today,” she added. “We stand with state attorneys general who continue to fight for women’s health and safety and we call on every state to take action against deadly misinformation.”

Ingrid Skop, a board certified OB-GYN who serves as the director of medical affairs at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, argued that Thurman’s and Miller’s deaths show how dangerous these “self-managed” abortion drugs are, “as we have been warning for years.”

“Yet, the FDA has steadily removed important safeguards on these drugs, allowing them to be ordered online and delivered in the mail without a single in-person doctor visit,” Skop said. “Both women suffered failed abortions requiring surgical treatment. Amber died from sepsis, a complication the FDA alerts physicians to watch for in its ‘black box’ warning on mifepristone. Physicians must be aware of this risk and swiftly intervene.”

Skop also argued that misinformation is to blame for the women’s deaths, rather than pro-life laws that protect them and their children.

“Candi’s family states she did not seek medical care because she was worried about prosecution, but every pro-life state law prohibits prosecution of women for seeking an abortion,” Skop said. “Intentional misinformation by pro-abortion media regarding criminal penalties and claims that abortion drugs are ‘safer than Tylenol’ frighten women so that they do not seek medical care when they suffer complications like severe pain and heavy bleeding.”

Neither the White House nor the Harris campaign responded to requests for comment.