Vice President Kamala Harris cited a debunked report on Friday to blame former President Donald Trump for the death of a Georgia woman following a medically induced abortion. The report claimed that doctor error was responsible for the death rather than Peach State restrictions on the procedure. Kamala Harris spoke at length during an Atlanta rally about the August 2022 death of Amber Nicole Thurman, who suffered a fatal infection after taking abortion pills that did not expel all the fetal tissue from her body. The Democratic presidential nominee claimed repeatedly that Thurman had died because of Georgia’s so-called “heartbeat law,” which went into effect after the Supreme Court — including three justices nominated by Trump — voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Others, however, have pointed out that under the Georgia law, doctors were not forbidden from operating on Thurman to remove the tissue. The law prohibits elective abortions on children who have a “detectable human heartbeat” and allows the procedure if the doctor determines the mother’s life is at risk or if the fetus is deemed unviable due to a serious medical condition. Kamala Harris has been using abortion rights as one of her key arguments for why voters should choose her over Trump in what is shaping up to be the closest election in decades.
