OPINION:
Last week Kamala Harris told the stories of two women who died after taking abortion pills (“At Georgia rally, Harris links Trump, abortion bans to deaths of two women,” web, Sept. 20). She claimed that a Georgia state law restricting abortion and Donald Trump are responsible for these deaths. In fact, the Georgia law allows abortion in “medical emergencies” something both of these women were clearly experiencing.
One of the women, Amber Nicole Thurman, was bleeding and in pain after taking abortion medication. She was taken to a hospital emergency room, where medical staff began treating her but delayed surgery for more than 20 hours to remove the fetal remains.
Thurman died on the operating table, and the state’s maternal mortality review committee found the death “preventable.” Yes, it certainly was — and under the state law, timely surgery would have been allowable because the case was a medical emergency. Furthermore, the surgery did not even require scrutiny under the state law because there was no live fetus, let alone a detectable fetal heartbeat, in the uterus.
The second woman Ms. Harris talked about, Candi Miller, took abortion pills and subsequently experienced pain and complications. Her family has reported that Miller decided not to go to the hospital because feared she would face legal consequences if she did. That fear was unfounded. Under Georgia law, the woman is not prosecuted and Miller’s “medical emergency” would have allowed the care necessary to save her life.
JEANNE SPAETH
Ashland, Wisconsin
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