In 2022, Amber Nicole Thurman, a 28-year-old medical assistant from Georgia, died from a severe infection that was easily treatable. Thurman became pregnant in 2022 and decided to terminate the pregnancy by taking abortion-inducing drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol. Thurman then experienced a rare complication in which the fetal tissue was not fully expelled. On Aug. 19, 2022, she arrived at Piedmont Henry Hospital in Stockbridge, Georgia, where she sought treatment for her worsening infection. Thurman’s symptoms suggested that having a dilation and curettage (D&C) would be the best form of treatment. The Georgia legislature had made performing a D&C a felony, with rare exceptions. After 20 hours of her organs failing, and the infection spreadang to her bloodstream, doctors finally decided to operate, but by that time it was too late, and Thurman did not survive.
The state’s maternal mortality review committee recently found that Thurman’s death was preventable, making it the first preventable case linked to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Vice President Kamala Harris issued a statement attributing Thurman’s death to “Trump abortion bans.”
The linking of this case to the overturning of Roe v. Wade has left many American women afraid for the future of their rights, and lives as women in this country. “At the end of the day, a woman knows her body best and if she is saying she needs help, doctors need to believe her,” says Mariama Reese ’25.
Since the death of Thurman, a Georgia judge struck down its six-week ban to a 22-week ban, but shortly after, it was reinstated as a six-week ban, a decision that comes as many women are heading to the polls to vote for the next president.