(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris said Donald Trump was responsible for triggering the events that led to the death of a Georgia woman that one report called the first officially preventable fatality related to abortion bans enacted across several US states.
Harris’ statement, issued Tuesday, stemmed from a ProPublica article on the case of Amber Nicole Thurman of Georgia, who died in 2022 from an infection arising from an abortion. Treatment was delayed, according to ProPublica, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling that struck down the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that had guaranteed abortion rights.
Thurman was the mother of a 6-year-old son.
“This is exactly what we feared when Roe was struck down,” Harris said in a statement. “These are the consequences of Donald Trump’s actions.”
The case illustrates the stakes that abortion rights play in this election. Harris has vowed to sign into law a measure that restores Roe, while Trump has touted the 2022 Dobbs ruling while shifting questions about any particular case to states.
“For 52 years, they’ve been trying to get Roe v. Wade into the states. And through the genius and heart and strength of six Supreme Court justices, we were able to do that,” he said at his debate with Harris last week.
On Tuesday, Harris’ campaign is initiating a voter registration drive, including on reproductive rights. It includes events by Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, in Georgia and North Carolina. The two states, along with Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, are among the most crucial battlegrounds.
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