The ruling comes weeks after ProPublica published the tragic story of 28yearold mother Amber Thurman who died just weeks after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022 and ended a national right to abortion
A Georgia judge has struck down the states six week abortion ban just weeks after ProPublica published the tragic story of the preventable death of Amber Nicole Thurman
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order Monday that liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning in its protections and in its bundle of rights the power of a woman to control her own body to decide what happens to it and in it and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices
McBurney wrote that his ruling means the law in the state returns to what it was before the law was passed in 2019 allowing abortions until roughly 20 weeks into a pregnancy When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life then and only then may society intervene McBurney wrote
Thurman waited for 20 hours for treatment before eventually dying in the hospital from her infection
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An arbitrary sixweek ban on abortions is inconsistent with these rights and the proper balance that a viability rule establishes between a womans rights of liberty and privacy and societys interest in protecting and caring for unborn infants the order says
The ruling comes weeks after ProPublica published the tragic story of 28yearold mother Amber Thurman who died just weeks after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022 and ended a national right to abortion Thurman died in a suburban Atlanta hospital after experiencing a rare complication from taking an abortion pill
The young mother waited for 20 hours for treatment before eventually dying in the hospital from her infection Two weeks prior to Thurmans death Georgia Gov Brain Kemp signed one of the countrys most restrictive abortion laws making performing the procedure a felony punishable by up to a decade in prison
Vice president Kamala Harris invited Thurmanaposs family to speak at quotUnite for Americaquot hosted by Oprah Winfrey
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Doctors in Thurmans case possibly fearful of the potential penalties for performing the procedure waited 20 hours before operating on her a decision that ultimately proved fatal Thurmans family only learned that the Georgia committee had ruled her death preventable once ProPublica began their investigation
Thurmans story has taken center stage for the 2024 presidential election Vice president and democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris invited Thurmans family to speak at Unite for America hosted by Oprah Winfrey in order to highlight the consequences of former President Trumps and the Republican partys abortion policy
Amber was not a statistic she was loved by a family a strong family and we wouldve done whatever to get our baby the help that she needed Ambers mother Shanette said Harris spoke to the family following their remarks and expressed her sympathy for the loss of their daughter and sister talked about the broader consequences of Trumps three nominees to the Supreme Court
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Just to step back in terms of how we got here The former President chose three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that would overdue the protections of Roe v Wade And they did as he intended and in state after state including yours these abortion bans have been passed that criminalize healthcare providers and some cases prison for life Harris said
Harris also pointed to the life of the mother exception that many of these state laws have meaning doctors can perform abortions if the life of the mother is at risk Harris argued that doctors in these cases will often wait until the mother is close to death
When the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022 and ended a national right to abortion it opened the door for state bans
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Heres the problem with that Is she on deaths door before you actually decide to give her help A doctor or nurse has to say She might die any minute so we better give her care because otherwise I might go to prison for life in some cases
ProPublica also reported on the death of Candi Miller a woman with lupus diabetes and hypertension who took abortion pills she ordered online An autopsy found fetal tissue that hadnt been expelled and a lethal combination of painkillers ProPublica reported
The states maternal mortality review committee found that Millers death was not caused by the abortion medication and like Thurmans was preventableWhen the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022 and ended a national right to abortion it opened the door for state bans Fourteen states now bar abortion at all stages of pregnancy with some exceptions
The impact of bans has been felt deeply in the South because many people have to travel hundreds of miles to states where abortion procedures can be obtained legally The Georgia ruling if it stands could open up new avenues to access abortion not only for residents of the state but for people in nearby states who currently face long trips to places like North Carolina or Illinois
