Kamala Harris blasted Donald Trump as a threat to women's freedoms and their very lives, warning in a speech in the battleground state of Georgia on Friday that Republicans would continue to choke off access to abortion if he returns to the White House.
The Democratic vice president's visit came days after ProPublica reported that two women in the state died after they did not get proper medical treatment for complications from taking abortion pills to end their pregnancies.
Such deaths, Harris said, were not only preventable but predictable because of laws that have been implemented since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Although Georgia's six-week ban allows abortions in early pregnancy to save a mother's life, critics say the law has created dangerous confusion for doctors about when they're allowed to provide care.
“Good policy, logical policy, moral policy, humane policy is about saying a healthcare provider will only start providing that care when you’re about to die?” Harris asked.
Harris shared the story of Amber Thurman, a mother who decided to have an abortion when she became pregnant again.
“She had her future all planned out," Harris said. "And it was her plan. What she wanted to do for herself, for her son, for their future.”
However, Thurman waited more than 20 hours at the hospital for a routine medical procedure known as a D&C to clear out remaining tissue after taking abortion pills. She developed sepsis and died.
“She was loved," Harris said. "And she should be alive today.”
Harris has been outspoken on abortion rights ever since the Supreme Court's decision more than two years ago, but Friday's speech was her first focused squarely on the issue since replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Harris, who was in the Atlanta area on Friday to address the issue, heard Thursday night from the mother and sisters of one of the women who died.
During a livestreamed campaign event hosted by Oprah Winfrey and attended by Harris, Shanette Williams, the mother of Amber Thurman, tearfully told viewers that “people around the world need to know that this was preventable.” Williams said she initially did not want to go public about her daughter’s 2022 death but ultimately decided it was important for people to understand her daughter “was not a statistic. She was loved.”
Harris told the family, “I’m just so sorry. The courage you all have shown is extraordinary.”
Trump has repeatedly said he was proud to help overturn Roe v. Wade by appointing conservative justices during his term in office. He's also said he supports exceptions to abortion bans in cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, said that since Georgia has such exceptions in place, “it’s unclear why doctors did not swiftly act to protect the lives of mothers."
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