Georgia's abortion ban killed a young mother. The Christian right now blames the victim

[Eugene]

Source: Salon

Georgia's abortion ban killed a young mother. The Christian right now blames the victim

Anti-choice activists argue that if Amber Nicole Thurman had submitted to forced childbirth, she'd still be alive

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published September 19, 2024 5:57AM (EDT)

Pro-choice activists warned in the immediate aftermath of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health that the subsequent cascade of abortion bans would kill women. Two years after the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, we're not finding out that it didn't take long. Amber Nicole Thurman, 28, died on August 19, 2022, less than a month after Georgia passed its draconian abortion law that banned the treatment that could have saved her life. While the doctors and nurses tasked with her care did not speak to ProPublica, who first reported on this death this week, a 10-member committee set up to examine maternal mortality cases has deemed Thurman's death "preventable," and ruled she would have likely lived if doctors had used the protocols that had been in place before the Georgia law made them a felony.

But Republicans and Christian right activists don't want to take responsibility for the loss of this healthy young mother of a 6-year-old boy. Instead, they're casting blame on everyone else: the doctors in the Georgia hospital, abortion providers in North Carolina, and, though they will deny doing so, they're blaming Thurman herself. Thurman chose abortion. They're blaming her choice for her death.

In her rant on Twitter about it, anti-choice activist Lila Rose repeatedly emphasized how she believes Thurman did this to herself, declaring she "died from sepsis after taking legally obtained abortion pills." Acknowledging that Thurman "sought out an abortion" and traveled to North Carolina for the pills, Rose insists, "Abortion killed Amber Thurman. Abortion killed Amber's twin babies." She also blames Thurman for waiting "days before seeking medical care." While Rose will pretend otherwise, the victim-blaming is not subtle.

Rose's finger-pointing is dishonest to a grotesque extreme. Thurman's death is not due to her choice to take medication abortion, which has a mortality rate of .0003%, which is 1 in every 377,000 cases. (Out of 377,000 women who give birth, in contrast, 83 will die.) Thurman, as the report makes clear, would have almost certainly survived if she had received the pre-Dobbs standard of care, which is an immediate removal of an incomplete miscarriage. But Georgia's law, as written, makes this a felony. As ProPublica explained:

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Read more: https://www.salon.com/2024/09/19/georgias-abortion-ban-a-young-mother-the-christian-right-now-the-victim/

[Silent Type]

1. Knew that's what the MFers would claim. They are wrong, and other women died from lack of

treatment. Many more will too. This is so tragic, but most trumpsters won’t care or will rationalize it someway.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Too bad the men who get women pregnant

will never themselves die from an unwanted pregnancy.
Maybe, for every such random female reproductive death, a man should randomly be selected and put to death.

That's terrible? Is women dying from untreated pregnancy acceptable? It is? Really?

If I were in charge all men would be castrated at puberty. That would tend to reduce unwanted pregnancies.

As a woman, I am so incredibly sick of the casual acceptance of women dying from pregnancy, while men just skip along and pretend that somehow none of them are ever responsible. Excuse me? Yeah, castrating all men works. And honestly, far fewer people would die in the end.

[aocommunalpunch]

3. Um, any sarcasm for us in the back?

I understand the response, but 100% castration seems hyperbolic. Why not just kill the males at birth?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Agree, killing the males at birth

would also work.

Do I need the sarcasm thingy?

[TheKentuckian]

7. All of it sounds extreme when white people could just stop voting for Republicans so much and fix

not only this but just about every other disastrous issue and threat we face.

[LizBeth]

4. D&C is a medical procedure with intended or natural abortion. That simple. ANY of these "christian" women

have a natural abortion (miscarriage) will now be endanger and not afforded a life saying medical procedure that has nothing to do with ending fetus life.

[Quiet Em]

6. Women who give birth suffer from this complication as well

It wasn't the abortion pill, it was the inhumane, asinine laws written by people who have no business legislating healthcare. Get rid of the laws and these women are alive today.