When politicians speak, people listen. Whether on social media, the debate stage, or the nightly news, they have a platform to engage the public on the issues of the day. But many of them use their position to advance their personal agendas—to the detriment of the public good. This must stop. There are some issues that should transcend politics.
Women’s health should be one. In the past few weeks, however, we have witnessed the opposite. These politicians have falsely accused states with pro-life laws—that protect the lives of both pregnant women and their unborn babies—of risking women’s lives. This kind of deceit is dangerous.
Many people have now heard about the tragic and preventable death of Amber Thurman. She was nine weeks’ pregnant with twins and sought an abortion from a provider in North Carolina. The provider did not perform the surgical abortion that she desired—a procedure that would have immediately ended her pregnancy at the office. Instead, the provider gave Ms. Thurman a chemical abortion—a two-drug protocol that can take up to 30 days to complete, according to the FDA’s label.
Unfortunately, the FDA no longer requires an abortion drug prescriber to provide follow-up care to check a woman for complications before they become life-threatening. This is especially reckless because the FDA’s label warns that roughly one in 25 women will end up in the emergency room after taking abortion drugs. The Biden-Harris administration had the opportunity to reverse this decision but instead doubled down and removed the safeguard that a provider must meet with a woman before taking abortion drugs.
Ms. Thurman was pushed the abortion drugs that ultimately ended her life and then out the provider’s door—no follow-up care required. That meant she was left to figure out for herself whether she was experiencing the typical excruciating pain of the drugs or a life-threatening complication. The drugs caused her to hemorrhage, vomit blood, pass out, and suffer a severe infection, according to a ProPublica report. A local hospital inexplicably waited about 20 hours before surgically intervening. Sadly, Ms. Thurman died on the operating table.
The outrage upon hearing about her death was universal. But certain politicians shamelessly decided to score political points instead of trying to understand what happened.
Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, blamed Georgia’s pro-life law—which expressly allows a doctor to save a pregnant woman’s life by whatever means necessary—alleging that “doctors have to wait until the patient is at death’s door before they take action.” Not to be outdone, on the national debate stage, Gov. Tim Walz also blamed Georgia’s law and asserted “had Amber Thurman lived in Minnesota, she would be alive today.”
But there’s a fundamental problem with these attacks: they’re not true.
You don’t need to take my word for it. The nationally prominent lawyer for Ms. Thurman’s family has squarely placed blame on the doctors and not Georgia’s pro-life law: “Even under Georgia law, the doctors had a duty to act to save Amber.” He explained, “She had taken the abortion pills and there were tissues left. There was no viable fetus or anything that would have prevented them from saving her life while she suffered.”
He’s right. Under Georgia’s law, an unborn baby needs to “have a detectable human heartbeat” even to be eligible for protection. But Ms. Thurman’s babies had no heartbeat. Georgia also has an express exception for a physician to perform an abortion on an unborn baby if the “physician determines, in reasonable medical judgment, that a medical emergency exists.” And no one disputes that Ms. Thurman’s hemorrhaging, vomiting blood, passing out, and severe infection constituted “a medical emergency.” Finally, Georgia allows for an abortion when “the pregnancy is medically futile.” Again, there is no dispute that Ms. Thurman’s babies were already dead and, by definition, “medically futile.”
It’s no surprise why Sen. J.D. Vance responded to Gov. Walz by saying, “I agree with you, Amber Thurman should still be alive.” We can all agree.
But those government officials who ran with the false narrative to further their political ambitions should apologize for misleading the public and admit the truth: abortion drugs, not Georgia’s pro-life law, caused Ms. Thurman’s death. Failure to correct the record could lead to more women dying from these politicians’ lies and the dangerous abortion drugs they push.
Erik C. Baptist is senior counsel and director of the Center for Life at Alliance Defending Freedom.