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‘Stop Lying to My Patients’: Medical Professionals Rebuff Harris’s Claims about Pro-Life Laws

September 25, 2024

Doctors and OB/GYNs are pushing back against the pro-abortion rhetoric being spread by Vice President Kamala Harris in recent days. Last week, Harris faulted pro-life laws in Georgia for the deaths of two women, Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, who took the abortion drug.

“A young mother from Georgia should be alive today, raising her son and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school. This is exactly what we feared when Roe v. Wade was struck down. In more than 20 states, Trump Abortion Bans prevent doctors from providing basic medical care,” the vice president claimed, blaming former President Donald Trump for the spate of pro-life laws that have sprung up across the country in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

She continued, “Women are bleeding out in parking lots, turned away from emergency rooms, losing their ability to ever have children again. Survivors of rape and incest are being told they cannot make decisions about what happens next to their bodies. And now women are dying.” Harris concluded, “We must pass a law to restore reproductive freedom. When I am President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law. Lives depend on it.”

Mainstream media outlets quickly repeated Harris’s narrative. MSNBC declared, “Georgia’s ‘pro-life’ abortion ban literally killed a woman — and she won’t be the last,” adding, “If the Christian right had not had its way at the Supreme Court, Amber Nicole Thurman would be alive today. She would have been able to get the medical care she needed in 2022.” The news outlet continued, “Instead, the 28-year-old died a completely avoidable death in a Georgia hospital because the doctors treating her were terrified of committing a felony under the state’s abortion ban.”

Citing a report by the left-wing Pro Publica journal, MSNBC explained that Thurman scheduled an appointment at an out-of-state abortion facility in order to circumvent Georgia’s pro-life laws and, when she missed the appointment, took abortion pills to end the lives of the twins she was carrying. She developed sepsis as a result, even though MSNBC noted that such cases “are exceedingly rare.” Candi Miller also took abortion pills and, incorrectly believing that Georgia’s pro-life protections outlawed treatment of the sepsis she developed, did not seek medical care.

In response to Harris’s claims, Dr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life OB/GYNs (AAPLOG), called out the vice president’s pro-abortion assertions. “I agree with the Vice President that their deaths were 100% preventable,” Francis began, referring to Thurman and Miller. She continued, “However, their deaths were not the result of Georgia’s abortion law. No pro-life law in the country prevents OB/GYNs like me from intervening when a woman is facing a potentially life-threatening complication of her pregnancy. They do not have to be knocking on death’s door before we can intervene.” Francis added, “Madam Vice President: Stop lying to my patients! Your lies are harming women and they’re harming physicians!”

On Thursday, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Harris repeated her pro-abortion claims, saying that pro-life laws “criminalize health care providers.” Responding to a question about exceptions to save the life of a mother, Harris asked, “Is she on death’s door before you actually decide to give her help? … Like, literally a doctor or a nurse has to say, ‘She might die any minute, better give her now [sic] care, because otherwise I might go to prison, for life in some cases.’”

Francis rebutted, “Dangerous lies about abortion drugs and state abortion laws are killing women.” She continued, “There’s not a single state law in this country that prosecutes women who have had abortions, and there’s not a single state law in the entire country that prevents doctors like me from intervening to manage complications, especially complications that we see routinely after women take abortion drugs.” Francis noted, “Candi and Amber … both suffered severe complications from abortion drugs that potentially led to their death. It’s important for women to understand that these drugs carry inherent risks and the way they’re being dispensed online now, because of the FDA’s reckless actions in removing medical supervision, is especially dangerous.” The pro-life OB/GYN reiterated, “It’s time for these lies to stop. Stop putting a political agenda ahead of women’s health!”

Another OB/GYN, Dr. Greg Marchand, also called out Harris for lying. “I’m an OBGYN,” he said. “There are no states where a woman must be on death’s door. In all 50 states an OBGYN can terminate a pregnancy whenever THEY deem a woman’s health is in danger. This is just a lie.”

“No law protecting unborn children in this country prevents physicians from taking action to save the life of that child’s mother,” said Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, in comments to The Washington Stand. “Kamala Harris is right to grieve the loss of the lives of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, but in spreading the lie that pro-life laws caused their death, Kamala Harris is ensuring that more women will die.” She went on to note that Harris “is ensuring that physicians are confused as to whether or not they can treat a woman who is septic after an abortion and needs a D&C — after all, the Vice President of the United States has said that the law prevents them from caring for those women.”

“She is ensuring that moms who are in need of treatment are wondering whether or not they can get it. And she is lying. Kamala Harris has to stop. Her lies are hurting mothers who are in pain and desperately need actual health care so that they can live,” Szoch continued. “These women are not political pawns to be used to win an election or score points in a debate — their lives matter, and Kamala Harris has to stop endangering them. Pro-lifers must continue to educate those around us that no law protecting an unborn child endangers or does not allow care for that child’s mother.”

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.