By Samantha KammanChristian Post Reporter Wednesday, October 9, 2024Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is joined by co-counsel Ray Hamlin (R) and Malcolm X's daughter IIyasah Shabazz at a press conference on July 25, 2023 in New York City. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The family of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who died in 2022 after taking abortion drugs, plans to sue Piedmont Henry Hospital, accusing doctors of failing to provide care and keeping Thurman's relatives in the dark about her condition have.
Thurman's family hired attorney Ben Crump, a well-known civil rights and personal injury attorney. Last week, the family attended a press conference with Crump in Decatur, Georgia, to demand “justice” for the 28-year-old mother.
A ProPublica report in September suggested that doctors did not provide Thurman with medical care due to confusion over Georgia's abortion law. But pro-life doctors argue that removing Thurman's deceased unborn child, who was already dead when she arrived at the hospital, would not have broken the law.
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Georgia law bans most abortions after a fetal heartbeat becomes detectable and defines abortion as “the act of using, prescribing, or administering any instrument, substance, device, or other means for the purpose of terminating a pregnancy with the knowledge that the Abortion is reasonable.” Probability of causing the death of an unborn child.”
“Even under Georgia law, doctors had a duty to act to save Amber,” Crump said at the conference. “She had taken the abortion pills and there was still tissue left. There was no viable fetus or anything else that would have prevented her from saving her life while she was suffering.”
“They have a duty to stabilize her and then give her the opportunity to go to another hospital facility,” he added. “But you can’t let her suffer and die in your hospital bed if the death is preventable.”
Piedmont Henry Hospital, Benjamin Crump and Amber Thurman's family did not immediately respond to The Christian Post's request for comment.
In 2022, Thurman received abortion medication from a facility in North Carolina after learning she was pregnant with twins. A few days later, the mother began to develop a severe infection as some of her baby's remains were still in her uterus.
Doctors at the hospital diagnosed Thurman with acute severe sepsis and discussed the possibility of dilatation and curettage the next day. But the procedure did not take place the next morning. Instead, doctors gave her antibiotics, prescribed blood pressure medication and tested her for sexually transmitted diseases and pneumonia.
When Thurman was finally taken to the operating room, doctors determined that her intestines needed to be removed, but concluded that the operation was too risky due to the lack of blood flow to that area. An expert told ProPublica that the blood pressure medication may be responsible for the lack of blood flow.
A gynecologist performed the D&C and proceeded with the hysterectomy, but Thurman's heart stopped while she lay on the operating table.
During last week's conference, Thurman's family said doctors had not kept them updated on the young woman's condition. Thurman's mother, Shanette Williams, said she would have taken her daughter to another hospital if she had known doctors had delayed performing a D&C.
“We would have done anything if we had known, but we didn’t,” Williams said. “We didn't have a chance to find out. It's so discouraging. It's heartbreaking. It’s disturbing.”
“Every emotion you could imagine from a mother, I had,” she added.
In addition to the lawsuit, Thurman's family is calling for a reevaluation of the state's maternal health policy, according to the Oct. 1 news release on Crump's website. The attorney and Thurman's family are calling for improvements in maternal health care, particularly for Black women.
“This tragic case also highlights the broader issue of health disparities for Black mothers in Georgia and across the country. Black women are disproportionately affected by systemic discrimination in healthcare, with one in five saying they are treated unfairly by a healthcare provider because of their race,” the press release states. “This disparity contributes to alarming disparities in maternal mortality rates for Black women.”
Earlier this month, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the state's law banning most abortions performed after an unborn child's heartbeat can be detected. The order blocked enforcement of a Fulton County Superior Court ruling striking down the heartbeat abortion ban while the legal case continues.
Justice John J. Ellington, concurring in part and dissenting in part, wrote an opinion in which he stated that “the State presents no reason for urgency beyond its underlying arguments for allowing the State to marry women.” “To prevent a pregnancy from being determined after embryonic cardiac activity and before a fetus is viable.”
“The parties' competing arguments about the harm arising from either the enforcement or non-enforcement of the statutory provisions at issue will form the core of the coming appeal and should not be predetermined in favor of the State before the appeal is even filed.” he wrote.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
