Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Senate President pro tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced plans to force a vote on abortion legislation on Tuesday after two pregnant women died after taking abortion pills.
“What happened in Georgia is a direct example of how abortion bans continue to exacerbate racial disparities in maternal mortality. Amber’s doctors did not provide her with the medical care she needed because of Georgia law,” Schumer said on the House floor.
“The law ignored the doctors’ sound medical judgment. She went into septic shock and her heart stopped while doctors did everything but give her the medically correct care she needed,” he said, referring to ProPublica’s reporting on the deaths of Candy Miller and Amber Nicole Thurman.
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Senate Democrats are scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill that would codify Roe v. Wade. (Getty Images)
Two women died in Georgia from complications after taking the abortion pill. In Thurman’s case, doctors waited a long time before performing a D&C, a non-abortion procedure, according to ProPublica. Miller suffered complications from the pill and was found unresponsive by her family.
“As we heard from our leaders today, we’re going to try to pass this resolution and see if the Senate can speak with one voice to say to women, ‘Women, we want to put your health first,'” Murray said at a news conference.
Democratic lawmakers in Washington will propose a unanimous vote on a resolution Tuesday afternoon that would affirm “the fundamental right to emergency medical care, including abortion care,” but Republicans are expected to oppose it.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on May 21, 2024. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Democrats’ plan to force a vote on abortion bills comes after the deaths of Miller and Thurman sparked a debate over who was responsible.
“Amber Thurman and Candy Miller are two black mothers whose lives have been lost as a result of Georgia’s draconian anti-abortion laws – women who could have survived if they had had access to the medical care they needed. This is the result of President Trump’s anti-abortion laws,” Murray argued earlier this month.
Roe v. Wade was overturned in the 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, returning the power to decide abortion restrictions to the states. Former President Trump’s appointments of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court are widely credited with giving conservative justices a majority and giving a crucial boost to the ruling.
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People protest against the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Other Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, have echoed Murray’s sentiments, blaming the women’s deaths on the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Some conservative leaders and groups, including the peak pro-life group, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, have pushed back against the Democrats’ portrayal of the women’s deaths.
“Pro-life law is clear, but politicians and the media are creating confusion at the expense of women. Nationwide, pro-life laws allow doctors to provide emergency care, and doctors who don’t provide necessary medical care should be held accountable,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement.
“Pro-abortion Democrats and the abortion industry are stoking and exploiting tragedies caused by abortion itself, like the deaths of Amber Thurman and Candy Miller, leaving women confused about the law and afraid to seek treatment in emergency situations. These lies have real consequences, and we urge pro-abortion Democrats to prioritize women’s safety over unlimited abortions,” she said.
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Senator James Lankford speaks during a Senate Finance Committee hearing at the Dirksen Senator Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, United States, October 19, 2021. (Reuters)
During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on “Threats to Reproductive Health,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., questioned Dr. Christina Francis, an obstetrician-gynecologist and CEO of the American College of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, about the safety of abortion pills.
“Of course, there is the recent case of Candy Miller who died from a chemical abortion. The FDA recently changed their rules to say, ‘We’re not going to provide you with any information about the outcome. We’re not even going to report it. We’re not going to notify you.’ You don’t have to go to a doctor to get a chemical abortion. I’ve heard a lot from my Democratic colleagues that chemical abortions are as safe as Tylenol. Can you tell me a little bit more about chemical abortions?” he asked.
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“After taking these drugs, incomplete abortions – where not all of the fetal and placental tissue is expelled – occur in between 5 and 10 per cent of women. This may sound like a small number, but if you look at the number of chemical abortions performed in the country each year, the number of women experiencing this complication is significant,” Francis replied.
She also warned that abortion pills are not the equivalent of Tylenol, saying, “These are not safe drugs and women have a right to accurate information about them.”