Women In Georgia Are Literally Dying Because Of Stupid And Cruel Abortion Laws
Yes, plural. Women died because they couldn't get care.
This is not the kind of thing in which one takes great joy in having been right. But we were right. When abortion rights activists said “These laws will kill people,” we were not being hyperbolic. We knew what would happen.
And, in Georgia, it’s happened at least twice now.
A ProPublica investigation found two women who died because they could not get proper medical care as a result of the state’s very stupid abortion laws — sharing the first woman’s story in a harrowing story on Monday.
Amber Nicole Thurman, a 28-year-old mother to a six-year-old son, died in a suburban Atlanta hospital of “septic shock” and “retained products of conception” after doctors refused to perform a D&C on her, two weeks after Georgia’s abortion ban went into effect in 2022. Why? Because the law only specifically permitted them to remove fetal tissue due to a “spontaneous miscarriage,” and Thurman had taken abortion pills to end her pregnancy on purpose.
It’s extremely rare for there to be such serious complications with abortion pills, but there are exceptions to every rule when it comes to any medication, and Thurman was that exception. Within hours after she arrived at the hospital, doctors realized she was likely septic, but did not perform a D&C, the standard treatment for that condition — likely because she told them she had taken abortion pills. Rather, they started loading her up with antibiotics.
By the next morning, she was diagnosed with “acute severe sepsis” and still no D&C.
Via ProPublica:
Instead of performing the newly criminalized procedure, they continued to gather information and dispense medicine, the summary shows.
Doctors had Thurman tested for sexually transmitted diseases and pneumonia.
They placed her on Levophed, a powerful blood pressure support that could do nothing to treat the infection and posed a new threat: The medication can constrict blood flow so much that patients could need an amputation once stabilized.
At 6:45 a.m., Thurman’s blood pressure continued to dip, and she was taken to the intensive care unit.
At 7:14 a.m., doctors discussed initiating a D&C. But it still didn’t happen. Two hours later, lab work indicated her organs were failing, according to experts who read her vital signs.
At 12:05 p.m., more than 17 hours after Thurman had arrived, a doctor who specializes in intensive care notified the OB-GYN that her condition was deteriorating.
Thurman was finally taken to an operating room at 2 p.m.
By that point, she had become so septic that her bowels had to be removed, but doctors couldn’t even do that, likely because of the aforementioned Levophed. She finally got the D&C, but it was too late. She died on the operating table.
While it’s not exactly clear why the doctors felt they couldn’t perform a D&C, the law only allows them to act if they are sure the woman is going to die if they don’t — and that’s not really the kind of thing you can do an exact calculation for. When the consequence of deciding the procedure was unnecessary is your medical license or your freedom, doctors are often going to err on the side of not doing it.
Even in the United States, where we tend to be rather callous when it comes to health care, we don’t refuse care to people because they did something against the law. If someone gets shot while robbing a bank, they get medical care. If someone overdoses, we give them Narcan. Abortion, in some states, is apparently the only exception.
We said from the beginning “this is not going to end well.” And we keep hearing stories in which it does not. We keep hearing stories of women nearly dying, ending up with permanent health problems, and, yes, dying.
That is the reality of these laws.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
They Party of Death did not care when millions were dying during COVID, they even advocated that people should be willing to die so that they won't be inconvenienced; they certainly won't care about a few women now.
Nice summary by JoJo.
Jo
@JoJoFromJerz
In the state of Georgia, it was much easier for a teenage boy to get his hands on the assault rifle he would use to take lives, than it was for a deathly-ill young mother to get the D&C that would have saved hers.
5:17 PM · Sep 16, 2024
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240.4K Views