Harris invokes Georgia woman’s death in Atlanta speech on abortion rights
Vice President Harris spoke forcefully Friday about the pain experienced by women in states with abortion bans, placing the blame for their suffering squarely on Republicans and former President Trump.
In remarks focused solely on abortion rights, Harris in Atlanta invoked the name of Amber Nicole Thurman, a 28-year-old Georgia woman who died of an infection after a rare complication from taking medication abortion.
“We will speak her name: Amber Nicole Thurman,” Harris said, leading the crowd in a call and response. “Amber Nicole Thurman.”
According to a recent ProPublica report, Thurman waited 20 hours in a suburban Atlanta hospital after seeking medical care for an incomplete abortion before doctors tried to give her the treatment she needed.
A state medical board review said she died largely because of the hospital’s delay in treating her and called it “preventable.”
“We understand the impact of these bans, and the horrific reality that women and families, their husbands, their partners, their parents, their children, are facing as a consequence every single day since Roe was overturned,” Harris said.
“The reality is, for every story we hear of the suffering under Trump abortion bans, there are so many of the stories we’re not hearing, but where suffering is happening every day in our country,” she continued.
Thurman’s family met with Harris at her “Unite for America” rally Thursday with Oprah Winfrey in Michigan.
During her remarks Friday, Harris said she spoke with Thurman’s sisters and mother.
“I promised her, as she has asked, that we will make sure Amber is not just remembered as a statistic,” Harris said. “People will know she was a mother and a daughter and a sister, and that she was loved and that she should be alive today.”
Trump repeatedly brags about his role in getting Roe overturned, and the speech was part of the Harris campaign’s effort to tie the consequences of state abortion bans directly back to him.
“Doctors have to wait until the patient is at death’s door before they take action,” Harris said, pushing back on Trump’s embrace of exceptions to abortion bans. “Think about what we are saying right now. You’re saying that good policy, logical policy, moral policy, humane policy is about saying that a health care provider will only start providing that care when you’re about to die.”
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