Amber Nicole Thurman's death from an infection in 2022 is believed to be the first confirmed maternal fatality linked to post-Roe bans.

Reproductive justice advocates have been warning for more than two years that the end of Roe v. Wade would lead to surge in maternal mortality among patients denied abortion care---and that the increase was likely to be greatest among low-income women of color. Now, a new report by ProPublica has uncovered the first such verified death. A 28-year-old medical assistant and Black single mother in Georgia died from a severe infection after a hospital delayed a routine medical procedure that had been outlawed under that state's six-week abortion ban.

Amber Nicole Thurman's death, in August 2022, was officially deemed "preventable" by a state committee tasked with reviewing pregnancy-related deaths. Thurman's case is the first time a preventable abortion-related death has come to public attention since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, ProPublica's Kavitha Surana reported.

Now, “we actually have the substantiated proof of something we already knew—that abortion bans kill people,” said Mini Timmaraju, president of the abortion-rights group Reproductive Freedom for All, during a call with media. “It cannot go on.”

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 181 points 2 years ago (25 children)
  • [–] 31 points 2 years ago

    Fascists don't just lie, they invert the truth precisely.

    Trickle-down economics, for example, was pitched as "a rising tide lifts all boats", when in reality trickle down economics is the exact opposite of that. A rising tide lifting all boats would be the poorest person getting money until they have as much money as the second poorest person, then those two getting money until they have as much money as the third poorest person, and so on. Lying, reality-inverting fascists got up on a stage--in front of people-- and said that process was the same as giving the people with the most money even more money.

    In a way it's brilliant, because it's so brazenly and bafflingly stupid that it acts like an EMP for logical thought. Which they know, and intentionally utilize. The most important skill a fascist has to have is the ability to make people stupid enough to vote for them. What better way than to go for the jugular and assault reality itself?

    With an incessant anti-reality static, courtesy of your fox newses and heritage foundations, reality offers no obstacle at all.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (16 replies)
    [–] 132 points 2 years ago (30 children)

    A lot of pro-birth people argue "obviously things are different if the mother's life is in danger", but that ignores that there's often nothing obvious or definite about the line between "safe" and dangerous. Doctors are erring on the side of caution to avoid potential lawsuits and even jail time, and this is the result. People bleeding out in parking lots, suffering irreversible damage to their body, and people dying.

  • source
  • hideshow 30 child comments
  • [–] 29 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Prior to the ban, politicians said that they feared doctors would use the “she’s in danger wink wink” defense and made it very very hard to use that defense, and as a result it’s very very hard for women to get the care they need.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 26 points 2 years ago

    Well I guess they get dead women now.

    There needs to be a group of lawyers out there with spines of steel to take on a class action lawsuit(or several) to sue the fuck out of each of the states and politicians who pushed these anti-woman laws through and they resulted in women dying or being injured by healthcare being withheld... as mandated by the laws.

    These soulless pieces of shit only understand money, getting sued into the ground should get their fucking attention. I'd prefer jailtime, but Donald Dump shows republican shitheads don't go to jail, so I say class action lawsuit time.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    I've seen pro-life folks argue that but they frame it like... "the law is fine and it's a failure of the doctors not being willing to understand the law which led to deaths" and they'll also follow that up by saying that even if women die, they're saving more lives by preventing abortions so it's a net positive.

    I find it difficult to argue against that perspective. That is, I disagree with them but also it's hard to argue when they frame abortions as basically murder.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago* (2 children)
    1. Do we want doctors to also be lawyers? Spend all their time reading and interpreting laws and studying case precident on every little scenario? There's a reason why these are two separate and highly trained professions. We have a healthcare problem and we want doctors to spend their time doctoring, not lawyering. Also, it's never so clear on the medical side anyway, these are judgement calls. So it will go to court and review and all that stuff. The prosecution can always find one doctor to say it wasn't necessary.

    2. This is the old is fetus life.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (2 replies)
  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

    I think its easier to argue on premises. Why is abortion murder? The bible says life begins at first breath, etc...

    Edit: In the US its fairly easy, because you just have to get them to acknowledge its a religious belief. From there its easy to say that 'well do you believe in the 1st amendment' and note that establishment of religion is forbidden. Anti abortion laws have to be grounded in reality and from there its harder to argue that fetuses are persons.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    The bible also gives a magic abortion potion recipe that only works if the woman cheated, so it's pretty rich to say that God disapproves.

    The Test for an Unfaithful Wife (Numbers 5)

    11 Then the Lord said to Moses, 12 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him 13 so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), 14 and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure— 15 then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah[c] of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder-offering to draw attention to wrongdoing.

    16 “‘The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord. 17 Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. 18 After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse. 19 Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. 20 But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”— 21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse[d] among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. 22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”

    “‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”

    23 “‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. 24 He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her. 25 The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord and bring it to the altar. 26 The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial[e] offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. 27 If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse. 28 If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • load more comments (2 replies)
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • load more comments (16 replies)
    [–] 67 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    Worth pointing out that she died in August of 2022* - not long after Roe v Wade was overturned. Apparently it took a while for the hoops to be jumped through to officially call this a preventable death.

    So it's very, very likely that many women have died as well.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [+] 43 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 30 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    Your body, their choice.

    Just look at what pharma had gotten away with over the last four years. "Undergo this medical procedure or kiss your civil liberties goodbye!"

  • source
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • load more comments (8 replies)
    [–] 27 points 2 years ago

    When will a responsible politician be tried for murder? I know - never. But they should be. Because this shit is premeditated and with malicious, despicable intent.

  • source
  • [+] 25 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
    [–] 22 points 2 years ago
    [–] 19 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I bet that's far from the only case, unfortunately.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It's god's will. It was just her time.

    /s

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [+] 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (7 children)
  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

    I am religious. I like having a non-scientific justification for my non-empircal beliefs.

    I think you have an issue with people using religion as a shield for their crappy behavior. Controlling someone else is vile, using your religion to do it is unbelievablely cruel.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    The problem is people using it to control others. Religion was important before for human development. I am unsure of its value now, when most places have rules and laws in place to keep people in check.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 9 points 2 years ago

    Republicans "saving" lives again.

  • source
  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    I guess that was God's plan

  • source
  • load more comments
    view more: next ›