Vice President Kamala Harris is set to deliver a speech in Atlanta on September 20, 2024, where she will accuse former President Donald Trump of being responsible for two deaths in Georgia, which she will attribute to the state’s restrictive abortion laws.
However, the connections between the deaths and Georgia’s six-week abortion ban are being called into question.
At a glance:
- Vice President Harris will cite two Georgia women’s deaths in her speech, linking them to the state’s strict abortion laws.
- The deaths, as reported by ProPublica, lack clear evidence directly connecting them to the six-week abortion ban.
- Harris is expected to use the speech to call for restoring federal abortion rights and tie the issue to former President Trump, despite Trump’s policy not advocating state-level abortion bans.
The New York Times reported that Harris’s speech will focus on two women, Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, whose deaths have been highlighted by ProPublica, a left-leaning investigative news outlet. The outlet claims that Georgia’s abortion restrictions, which ban most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, contributed to the deaths. However, significant doubts have been raised about the validity of these claims.
In Thurman’s case, ProPublica reported that she died of sepsis after experiencing complications from an incomplete medication abortion. The outlet speculated that hospital staff delayed performing a critical procedure, known as dilation and curettage (D&C), due to concerns about violating Georgia’s abortion law. However, as ProPublica later admitted, it was unclear whether the law had any bearing on the delay. Georgia’s abortion restrictions allow for exceptions in medical emergencies, including cases where the life of the mother is at risk.
Candi Miller’s death, meanwhile, occurred after she reportedly attempted to navigate an abortion on her own without medical supervision. Miller took abortion pills, but according to ProPublica, she avoided seeking professional care when she began experiencing complications. An autopsy found that Miller had taken a lethal combination of painkillers, including the opioid fentanyl, which contributed to her death. ProPublica claimed that Georgia’s abortion laws played a role in her decision to avoid medical help, but these claims are based on anonymous opinions rather than direct evidence from official reports.
Harris’s speech is expected to leverage these two cases as part of a broader push to restore federal abortion rights, a key issue for Democrats since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. She is likely to frame these deaths as emblematic of the dangers posed by state-level abortion restrictions, which have been championed by Republicans in states like Georgia. Furthermore, Harris is expected to directly blame Trump for what she is calling “Trump Abortion Bans,” despite the fact that Trump has not pushed for state-level bans on abortion.
Critics argue that Harris’s attempt to tie these deaths to Trump is misleading. Trump, while vocal about his pro-life stance, has advocated for a more moderate approach, suggesting that abortion restrictions should be left to individual states rather than imposed federally. Additionally, Trump has not explicitly supported Georgia’s six-week abortion ban, and Harris’s claims appear to contradict his policy positions on the issue.
The ProPublica articles, which Harris is expected to base much of her speech on, have been scrutinized for their lack of clear evidence linking the women’s deaths to Georgia’s abortion law. Legal experts and healthcare professionals have noted that existing laws in Georgia include provisions for treating life-threatening complications arising from abortions, including sepsis and incomplete abortions, the exact circumstances surrounding Thurman’s death.
As the debate over abortion restrictions continues, Harris’s use of these cases in her campaign has raised questions about the accuracy of the claims and the effectiveness of tying them to Trump. After all…in every case she cites, they have no relation to former President Donald Trump or his beliefs, values, and policies surrounding the issue of abortion.