While Ms Thurman’s tragic death after taking abortion pills seems upon examination to be the result of medical malpractice, what it does reveal is the dangers of these abortion-inducing drugs, especially when taken without medical supervision.
What happened?
Amber Thurman attempted to obtain an abortion in North Carolina in August 2022. On August 13, when she got to North Carolina, instead of getting a D&C as she initially planned, a clinic employee offered her the first stage of a medical abortion. She then presumably took the second pill no later than the next day – August 14, 2022.
Four days later, Ms. Thurman vomited blood and passed out. She was taken by ambulance to Piedmont Hospital. She arrived at the hospital at 6:51 pm but wasn’t assessed until 9:30 pm. She was placed on an IV drip, and the obstetrician-gynaecologist (OB-GYN) noted the possibility of a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure the following day, despite observing a foul-smelling vaginal odour. It remains unclear when the doctor diagnosed acute severe sepsis. Eventually, seven hours later, surgeons attempted an operation, but Ms Thurman died on the operating table.
As several US pro-life organisations have pointed out, there is no evidence that Georgia’s pro-life laws caused Ms Thurman’s death. D&C procedures are only illegal when carried out with the intention of ending an unborn child’s life, and the emergency provisions in the law would have allowed for intervention, even if the baby was still alive (which does not seem to have been the case).
So, what does this case tell us? Apart from the abortion lobby’s determination to blame any adverse effect of abortion on pro-lifers, it raises the question of the safety of these pills.
As malpractice attorney Michael Seibel writes for LiveAction, another woman – Keisha Atkins – also died of sepsis after taking abortion pills in New Mexico, a state with zero abortion restrictions.
These were not freak incidents, as the packaging for Mifeprex (the brand name that Mifepristone, the first drug in the medical abortion regime goes by in the States) warns of its possibility.
Section 5.1 of the drug insert warns practitioners as follows:
As with other types of abortion, cases of serious bacterial infection, including very rare cases of fatal septic shock, have been reported following the use of Mifeprex {see Boxed Warning}. Healthcare providers evaluating a patient who is undergoing a medical abortion should be alert to the possibility of this rare event. A sustained (> 4 hours) fever over 100.4̊ F or higher, severe abdominal pain, or pelvic tenderness in the days after the medical abortion may be an indication of infection.
Product information in the UK also warns of the risk of “fatal toxic or septic shock”. However, it is not possible to even find out the number of sepsis cases attributed to abortion in the UK, as the abortion stats do not break down different complications. All we know is that there were 300 complications recorded in 2022, which include “haemorrhage, uterine perforation, sepsis and/or cervical tear”. We do know that complications generally are vastly underreported, as the official statistics admit. “Data on complications should be treated with caution. It is not possible to fully verify complications recorded on HSA4 forms and complications that occur after discharge may not always be recorded. This means that, for medical terminations where either both or the second stage was administered at home, complications may be less likely to be recorded on the HSA4.”
Independent public health consultant Kevin Duffy has summarised the rates of abortion pill “failure” (continuing pregnancy or, more likely, “retained products of conception” necessitating surgical intervention) given by the manufacturers of abortion pills and the abortion providers who distribute them.
The medical abortion failure rate reported by Marie Stopes Australia in 2020 was 5%, meaning that one in 20 women being treated with abortion pills in its facilities needed additional medical intervention to address complications arising from an incomplete abortion. This rate is at the lower end of the estimated ranges from Ranbaxy and Linepharma, the manufacturers of the abortion pills used by providers in England and Wales. 5% is broadly consistent with findings from a detailed investigation by the New York Times and a Freedom of Information Investigation across NHS hospitals. This means that at least one in 20 of women who self-managed their abortion at home will suffer complications arising from treatment failure. These women will need to seek medical help, usually at their local NHS hospital, or continue to suffer ongoing bleeding and risk infection.
How many of these women are being treated for sepsis? Is it only a matter of time before we have an Amber Thurman or a Keisha Adams in the UK?
High rates of complications are only one of the failures of the pills-by-post policy. (You can read more in our briefing on the subject). That is why we need a full parliamentary review of this policy, before it can do any more damage.
