Her Daughter Died From Georgia’s Abortion Ban. She’s Getting Involved in Politics to ‘Honor Amber.’

In 2022, Amber Thurman, a 28-year-old single mother, died from delayed access to an emergency abortion procedure. On Tuesday, her family joined Georgia Democrats on a call supporting Kamala Harris' presidency.

By Kylie Cheung | October 17, 2024 | 5:22pm

Abortion Politics Abortion

Her Daughter Died From Georgia’s Abortion Ban. She’s Getting Involved in Politics to ‘Honor Amber.’

From left, Amber’s mom, Shanette Williams, and Amber’s sisters, CJ and Andrika Thurman.Photo: Screenshot

“Initially, I wasn’t a political person, I’m independent,” Shanette Williams said on a Tuesday press call hosted by Kamala Harris’ campaign. “But because of August the 19th, we’ve been thrown into an arena where we have to do something to honor Amber.”

On August 19, 2022, Williams’ daughter, Amber Thurman, died after being denied timely access to an emergency abortion procedure called a dilation and curettage, or D&C. The state’s six-week abortion ban had taken effect just weeks earlier, which made a D&C a felony, with few (if any) exceptions. Thurman, a 28-year-old single mother to a young son, was about to start nursing school when she learned she was pregnant. She waited to see if legal challenges to Georgia’s ban would be successful, but when she couldn’t wait anymore, she drove to North Carolina and was given abortion pills because the clinic was at capacity, inundated with out-of-state patients, and couldn’t provide an in-clinic, procedural abortion.

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Medication abortion is highly safe, but complications can arise, and in Thurman’s case, they did. The remedy was simple: a D&C procedure to remove the remaining tissue in her uterus and prevent sepsis. But when Thurman went to the hospital in urgent need of a D&C as her condition rapidly deteriorated, doctors waited 24 hours, weighing whether they could face criminal charges and imprisonment under Georgia law. They eventually performed the procedure—but it was too late.

Thurman is survived by her now-eight-year-old son, as well as her parents and two siblings, who spoke about Thurman and what she endured under Georgia law on the call, joined by Georgia’s two Democratic senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.

Williams, who joined Harris for an event alongside Oprah Winfrey in Michigan in September, said Harris “never asked was I Democratic or was I Republican.” She continued, “Harris really wanted to know if I was okay. I felt the genuineness, I felt the compassion.”

“Amber was not a statistic. She was loved by a family,” Williams said, audibly emotional. “When I looked at her and reassured her that she was in the best care, I had no clue … that this could have been prevented. And when I found that out, everything changed.”

Thurman’s story first came to light in September, when a report from ProPublic confirmed with Georgia’s maternal mortality committee that Thurman is among the first two maternal deaths caused by the state’s abortion ban. ProPublica noted that most state maternal mortality committees operate on a two-year lag, and are only now beginning to work on maternal deaths that took place after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health—which is why the review’s findings were only recently published. ProPublica also reported on Candi Miller, the second woman who died as a result of Georgia’s abortion ban, the state committee confirmed. Like Thurman, Miller suffered complications from a medication abortion, but she was too afraid of criminal charges to go to the hospital for a D&C.

Georgia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation and Black patients are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white patients. In the first year after Roe v. Wade was decided, the availability of D&C procedures reduced the rate of maternal deaths for women of color by 40%. Thurman and Miller’s stories are likely just the beginning.

“I’m thankful to the vice president for making my daughter’s death an issue and not letting it be swept under the rug,” Andre Thurman, Thurman’s father, said on the call.

In September, Harris responded to Thurman’s death in a speech in Georgia: “She was loved. And she should be alive today,” the vice president said. “We are not going back.”

Meanwhile, at the same time that Thurman’s family joined Georgia Democrats on Tuesday, Trump stopped by Fox News’ Faulkner Focus in Georgia, and seemed to joke about Thurman’s grieving family, as reported by Mediaite:

“I want to share with you Senators Warnock and Ossoff, [former] Atlanta Mayor [Keisha] Bottoms, and Amber Thurman’s family have come out on a press call,” [Faulkner] said. “And they’re doing what’s called a prebuttal to our town hall right now.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Trump said sarcastically. … “You’ll get better ratings, I promise.”

Audience members laughed and cheered in response.

While on the call with Thurman’s family, Warnock told Georgia voters they “need to vote like your life depends on it. It does.” He continued, “We don’t need this serial sexual assaulter to protect women,” referencing a 2023 civil trial that deemed Trump liable for sexual abuse, and Trump’s recent, almost comical declarations that he—of all people—will be women’s “protector” as president. “Women need to be protected from Donald Trump,” Warnock said.

Andrika Thurman, Thurman’s sister, mourned the ongoing pain of trying to talk to Thurman’s young son about what happened to his mother. “My nephew’s scared to go to the doctor. He’s scared to go to the hospital because he says, ‘Tití [auntie], what if they do me how they did my mom?’” Andrika said. “How do you explain that to an eight-year-old? How do you explain to an eight-year-old that his mother suffered in agonizing pain for 20 hours?”