Kamala Harris denounces Trump for abortion bans after 'preventable' deaths
Published in News & Features
Vice President Kamala Harris Friday denounced former President Donald Trump for pushing extreme abortion bans after a bombshell new published report called the deaths of two Georgia moms “preventable.”
The Democratic presidential nominee slammed Trump for backing restrictive abortion laws like Georgia’s, which a state panel said played a “large” role in the deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller.
“Amber waited 20 hours excruciating hours, until she was in enough physical distress that her doctors thought they could (legally) treat her,” Harris told hundreds of supporters in suburban Atlanta. “But they couldn’t save her.”
“It’s heartbreaking,” Harris added.
Harris derided Trump and vice presidential running mate JD Vance as “hypocrites” and worse for claiming their anti-abortion policies are pro-family.
“It should not be Donald Trump or the government telling women what to do with their own bodies,” she said. “How dare he.”
The speech came a day after Harris held an emotional meeting with Thurman’s family during a town hall with Oprah Winfrey on live television.
Harris choked back emotion after hearing the grieving family recount the story of her death.
“I’m just so sorry,” Harris told Thurman’s mother.
Thurman, the mother of a young boy, died in 2022 after suffering rare complications from abortion medication.
She went to the hospital after suffering severe symptoms, but doctors did not immediately treat her amid fears they could face criminal charges under Georgia’s newly enacted Republican law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
A state medical panel recently ruled Thurman’s death as “preventable” and said delays in providing care played a “large” role in her death, Pro Publica reported this week.
Miller, 41, died at home after taking abortion medication when she became pregnant. Relatives say she declined to go to the hospital to seek treatment for fear of being criminally charged under the law.
The state panel also called Miller’s death “preventable.”
Democrats believe abortion rights is a key issue for them in the 2024 election and Harris has relentlessly pounded Trump on it.
Democrats have enjoyed an uninterrupted string of wins in elections where abortion was a key issue ever since 2022, when the conservative Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that had legalized abortion nationwide.
Voters in several states, including red states like Kansas and Ohio, have voted in favor of abortion rights, and several other states are voting on similar ballot measures in November.
Trump has been put on the defensive by abortion rights-related attacks. He has previously proudly boasted of appointing the three conservative Supreme Court who overturned Roe.
But he has recently stressed that he believes that laws passed by his Republican allies like those in Georgia that ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy are too harsh and also that he supports exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
Despite Trump’s claim that he has a more moderate stance on abortion, he still says he will vote against a Florida ballot measure that would restore abortion rights and overturn the Sunshine State’s six-week ban.
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