Vice President Kamala Harris used a campaign stop in Atlanta on Friday to tie former President Donald Trump to Georgia’s abortion ban and recent maternal deaths as the campaign continues to drum up support related to reproductive rights.
An investigation from ProPublica this week revealed that at least two Georgia women died because of delayed emergency medical care under the state’s abortion ban — the first time a “preventable” maternal death has been linked to the post-Dobbs abortion bans.
“This is a health care crisis, and Donald Trump is the architect of this crisis,” said Harris. “Now we know that at least two women — and those are only the stories we know here in the state of Georgia — died, died because of a Trump abortion ban.”
Harris spoke to the the family of one of those women, Amber Nicole Thurman, during a campaign event with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday. Thurman, 28, died of sepsis after she was unable to receive a necessary dilation and curettage until it was too late. Georgia physicians risk prison time for performing abortions prohibited under state law.
“Their pain is heartbreaking,” said Harris on Friday, adding she promised Thurman’s mother that her daughter would not be remembered as a statistic. “People will know she was a mother and a daughter and a sister and that she was loved and that she should be alive today.”
The Democratic presidential nominee warned that abortion policies like the one in Georgia are untenable, despite language in that law to protect the life of the mother.
“We’re saying that we’re gonna create public policy that says that a doctor, a health care provider, will only kick in to give the care that somebody needs if they’re about to die. Think about what we are saying right now,” said Harris, referring to Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.
Harris also chided her opponent’s comments at the presidential debate earlier this month, and was interrupted by laughter and cheers.
“Remember when he said everyone wanted Roe v. Wade to be overturned?” Harris asked, to which the crowd responded with “No.”
“Well, exactly,” she said. “I don’t know who ‘everyone’ is, either, because women have been arrested and charged for miscarriages. They didn’t want that.”
Harris contrasted her platform with Trump’s, and lamented that the Senate fell short this week in a procedural vote that would protect access to fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization. She also echoed previous calls that she would sign legislation to protect abortion rights, if elected.
“If [Trump] is elected again, I am certain he will sign a national abortion ban, which would outlaw abortion in every single state, and he would create a national anti-abortion coordinator,” said Harris.
Anti-abortion advocates have criticized Harris’ comments following the news of the deaths of two Georgia women, arguing that those women should have been protected under state law. They’ve placed the blame on abortion drugs and how the drugs are administered.
“Georgia’s law is clear,” said Katie Daniel, an attorney with SBA Pro Life America during a press call Friday morning. “These preventable deaths should be a wake-up call for all Americans about the inherent dangers of abortion and how Biden-Harris policies that allow abortion drugs to be sent through the mail hurt women and their children.”
Democrats are banking on abortion-related messaging to boost voter turnout and enthusiasm this November, as the issue of reproductive rights has worked in their favor since the Supreme Court decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Voters have sided with abortion rights in all seven of the abortion-related voter initiatives held since the June 2022 decision.
“Let’s remember, since Roe was overturned, every time reproductive freedom has been on the ballot, the people of America have voted for freedom,” Harris said. “From so-called red states to so-called blue states.”
This year alone, 10 states — including Florida — are holding voter initiatives related to abortion.
“Now Donald Trump says that he would personally cast his vote in Florida, which is where he now lives, to support their extreme abortion ban, just like the one that is here in Georgia,” said Harris.
