Two Black women die due to delayed care over abortion restrictions

Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to speak in Georgia this Friday, addressing the increasing concerns over the state’s restrictive abortion laws. This comes in the wake of two women’s deaths that have been linked to delayed care after the use of abortion medication.

Amber Thurman, one of the women, passed away after waiting 20 hours in a Georgia hospital for treatment following complications from taking abortion pills. Thurman’s case, which was first reported by ProPublica, is the first publicly known death directly tied to delayed medical care under Georgia’s stringent abortion restrictions. The hospital’s reluctance to act promptly has raised significant concerns about how abortion laws are affecting emergency healthcare decisions.

Another woman, Candi Miller, who suffered from lupus, diabetes, and hypertension, also died after taking abortion pills she obtained online. According to ProPublica, her autopsy revealed fetal tissue that had not been expelled, along with a fatal amount of painkillers in her system. However, the state’s maternal mortality review committee concluded that the abortion medication itself was not the direct cause of her death.

Both women used the combination of mifepristone and misoprostol—drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for medication abortions. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, while misoprostol induces contractions to expel pregnancy tissue. These medications are used in more than 60% of abortions nationwide.

Mifepristone, approved by the FDA in 2000, has been found to be a safe and effective option for early pregnancy termination. Over the years, the FDA has relaxed several restrictions around the drug, culminating in the decision to allow the pills to be distributed through the mail in 2021. Despite its safety record, anti-abortion groups have argued that the increased accessibility of the medication has led to more emergency complications, though many of these claims conflate minor issues with more serious health concerns.

According to a 2015 study, major adverse events, including serious infection, excessive bleeding, or hospitalization, occur in less than 0.32% of cases. For most patients, the medication results in a complete abortion 97.4% of the time, with only 2.6% requiring surgical intervention to complete the process.

Critics argue that Georgia’s abortion restrictions, which primarily ban the procedure after six weeks, contribute to delays in care and confusion among healthcare providers, leading to tragic outcomes like those of Thurman and Miller. Meanwhile, Vice President Harris’s upcoming speech is expected to highlight these incidents as part of the broader debate over reproductive rights in the United States.

As the legal battle over abortion access continues, especially in states with restrictive laws like Georgia, the tragic deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller have ignited a fierce national conversation about the real-world consequences of such legislation.