Fact Check: Tim Walz Incorrectly Recounts Georgia Woman’s Sepsis Death to Push Abortion Agenda

CLAIM: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) claimed during Tuesday’s debate that Georgia mother Amber Nicole Thurman died in the “journey back and forth” from Georgia to North Carolina while seeking an abortion.

Verdict: False. Thurman died of sepsis in a hospital after experiencing complications from taking abortion pills to end her pregnancy with twins. Liberal outlet ProPublica published her story in September and blamed Georgia’s six-week abortion restriction for her 2022 death without clear evidence. The report notably cites a state committee, which said that Thurman may have had a “good chance” of surviving if the hospital had performed a D&C earlier to remove the remaining fetal tissue from her uterus.

Walz incorrectly cited the story during a portion of the debate with former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) over state abortion restrictions. He said:

There’s a young woman named Amber Thurman. She happened to be in Georgia, a restricted state. Because of that, she had to travel a long distance to North Carolina to try and get her care. Amber Thurman died in that journey back and forth.

The fact of the matter is, how can we as a nation say that your life and your rights, as basic as the right to control your own body, is determined on geography. There’s a very real chance that, had Amber Thurman lived in Minnesota, she would be alive today. 

Thurman did travel to North Carolina for a surgical abortion, but she missed her appointment and was given abortion pills instead, ProPublica reported. Thurman took the legally obtained pills when she was back at her home in Georgia.

Days after she took the second pill, Thurman reportedly began experiencing extremely heavy bleeding. By August 18, 2022, she vomited blood and passed out at home, leading to her boyfriend calling for an ambulance. She was transported to Piedmont Henry Hospital in Stockbridge that evening, ProPublica reported. 

The outlet allegedly obtained the summary narrative of Thurman’s hospital stay, which was provided to the state’s maternal mortality review committee. Surana also said she consulted with the committee and medical experts about the timeline of events.

Unnamed medical experts told the outlet it “should have been clear that she was in danger” when Thurman arrived at the hospital.

“Her lower abdomen was tender, according to the summary. Her white blood cell count was critically high and her blood pressure perilously low — at one point, as Thurman got up to go to the bathroom, she fainted again and hit her head. Doctors noted a foul odor during a pelvic exam, and an ultrasound showed possible tissue in her uterus,” the report states.

The hospital allegedly waited approximately 20 hours to perform a D&C even though she had been diagnosed earlier with “acute severe sepsis.” By the time of the procedure, her organs were failing and she needed a hysterectomy, the report alleges. Thurman’s heart ultimately stopped and she died during surgery. 

The state’s committee found that Thurman would have had a “good chance” of surviving if she had a D&C earlier and highlighted Piedmont’s “lack of policies/procedures in place to evacuate uterus immediately” and recommended all hospitals implement policies “to treat a septic abortion on an ongoing basis,” ProPublica reporter Kavitha Surana found.

The committee did not blame Georgia’s abortion restriction for her death as far as their findings are detailed in ProPublica’s reporting.

“It is not clear from the records available why doctors waited to provide a D&C to Thurman, though the summary report shows they discussed the procedure at least twice in the hours before they finally did,” Surana wrote.

Unnamed sources who were not authorized to speak publicly allegedly told Surana the hospital did not have a guidance for doctors about how to interpret the state’s abortion law when Thurman was there for care. The hospital has allegedly since established an internal task force to navigate the law.

Breitbart News previously reached out to the hospital for comment on the allegations and for confirmation about the internal task force, but the hospital did not respond. Breitbart News also previously reached out to Surana asking if she obtained any evidence that Thurman’s death was a direct result of the state’s abortion restriction and for any further clarification about her story. She also did not respond. 

Surana’s story was headlined: “Under Georgia’s Abortion Ban, She Died After Delayed Care.” She cited the case as an example for how dangerous abortion restrictions are to women, even though she admitted through her own reporting that “it is not clear from the records available” why doctors allegedly delayed care and noted that no one at the hospital gave an explanation to their reasoning for waiting. She entirely speculates that care was delayed because of state law. 

Even so, pro-abortion organizations and Democrats, including Walz’s running mate Vice President Kamala Harris, have used the story to push for federalizing abortion and undoing state pro-life restrictions.

Surana also claimed Georgia’s six-week abortion restriction made performing [a D&C] a felony, with few exceptions,” which is a dangerous mischaracterization of the law that could arguably lead to confusion. The procedure, dilation and curettage, is performed in some abortions, but it is also sometimes implemented in miscarriage management by clearing the uterus of the remains of an unborn child, according to Mayo Clinic. 

Every abortion restriction in the United States notably contains exceptions for extreme medical emergencies and the life of the mother, and courts have ruled that these laws do not require “imminence” or “certainty” before a doctor can act to save a patient’s life. Furthermore, no law criminalizes care for miscarriage or ectopic pregnancies, conditions which can be life-threatening. 

In Thurman’s case, the unborn babies were likely already dead, with doctors finding possible fetal tissue in her uterus when she was taken to the hospital.

Even if the twins still had heartbeats, Georgia’s law has an exception for abortions in medical emergencies, which is defined in the law: “means a condition in which an abortion is necessary in order to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or the substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.” Sepsis can damage vital organs and lead to death, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The Abortion Defense Project’s outline of Georgia abortion law supports this assessment. The Abortion Defense Network is a “collaborative effort by nonprofit organizations, private law firms, and government officials committed to safeguarding abortion access and upholding reproductive rights,” according to its website, and is overseen by left-wing legal groups like ACLU and Center for Reproductive Rights.

“With respect to self-managed abortion, it is legal for providers to give medical care during or after a self-managed abortion provided there is no cardiac activity, or if the patient is experiencing a complication that would qualify as a medical emergency, the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or the pregnancy is medically futile (see below),” a state-by-state report reads. “There is no specific crime of self-managed abortion in Georgia law, so a pregnant person cannot be convicted of a violation of Georgia’s abortion bans for self-managing their abortion.”

After the story was published, the American Association of Pro Life OBGYNs (AAPLOG) posted a lengthy thread to X about how physician’s should have intervened to save Thurman’s life.

“This is one of the most clearcut cases of medical malpractice (based on the information available publicly) that we have ever seen,” the organization alleged. “Standard of care on her arrival was IMMEDIATE D&C and initiation of antibiotics. Had this been done, she most likely would be alive today.”

“Tragic deaths like Amber’s should not be exploited to claim that they are the fault of pro-life laws. Don’t fall for the bait and switch. Her death was due to 2 things: abortion drugs and lack of appropriate & timely medical care (which is perfectly legal in pro-life states),” the organization continued:

This complication of abortion drugs is not rare. Retained tissue requiring surgical evacuation occurs in roughly 5% of women who take these drugs at 9 weeks.

Georgia’s law does NOT criminalize doing a D&C (nor does any other state law), especially when there is no detectable fetal heart rate (which there weren’t in this case).

GA’s law also allows for a D&C, even with a detectable heartbeat, to prevent the death or serious physical impairment of a pregnant woman. It prevents a D&C that has the sole intent of ending the life of a preborn human being.

Our patients deserve better. The abortion industry and its allies must STOP lying and instilling fear. It’s time for ALL physicians, regardless of their position on induced abortion, to stand for clarity over confusion, facts over fear, and excellent care of our patients.