Kamala Harris visited Georgia to champion abortion rights following ProPublica’s publication of misleading stories related to the state’s abortion ban.
Understanding the most recent pro-abortion media blitz, launched during the height of the presidential campaign, highlights how the Left controls the narrative on many policy issues, particularly those that are emotionally charged.
To propagandize the public, left-wing reporters find tragic stories, create a one-sided framing of the relevant policy issues, using emotional appeals to gain sympathy. These stories are used as fodder by Democratic politicians who smear their opposition as uncompassionate.
Two Georgia Women Die After Taking Abortion Pills
ProPublica reported on two stories, both holding Georgia’s abortion law responsible for the death of two women.
The articles detail the stories of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, inaccurately claiming Georgia makes the performance of a dilation and curettage (D&C), illegal except in narrow circumstances. This surgical procedure can be performed for abortion purposes, as a part of routine miscarriage care, or to address complications from an incomplete medication abortion. Georgia law only bans the procedure when performed with the purpose of killing an unborn child.
In the first case, Amber Thurman discovered she was pregnant with twins and traveled to North Carolina, but missed an appointment for a surgical abortion. Instead, Thurman took abortion pills to terminate her pregnancy.
She then developed complications when fetal tissue remained in her uterus. When excessive bleeding did not subside, Thurman went to the hospital for treatment. Doctors discovered she was septic, but did not perform a D&C to remove the tissue until twenty hours after Thurman's arrival. Thurman did not survive the procedure.
Candi Miller’s story is similar. Miller ordered abortion pills online and took them at home. Her cause of death remains unknown, but an autopsy found fetal tissue in her uterus, and a deadly combination of painkillers including fentanyl.
ProPublica Plays Public Prosecutor
ProPublica makes a case against the state of Georgia, alleging its abortion ban is responsible for Thurman and Miller's deaths. Reporter Kavitha Surana states that both cases are “mounting evidence that exceptions to abortion bans do not... protect the “life of the mother.””
Surana’s viewpoint is openly pro-choice, stating she reports on how “abortion bans have made pregnancy more dangerous in America,” including reporting about how Republican legislators “refuse to listen” to this reality.
In the second of the two stories, ProPublica rests its case, claiming its reporting “makes clear” that abortion bans cause women to lose their lives based on expert testimony. However, evidence in support of this claim is weak.
The experts Surana relies on to come to this conclusion are from anonymous sources within a state committee overseen by Georgia’s Department of Public Health. According to these sources, this committee “immediately” determined Miller’s death was caused by Georgia law. Their conclusion was reached despite the committee interviewing none of the doctors involved in the case.
This is significant because Miller’s cause of death remains unknown, and, in Thurman’s case, the law banning abortion did not prevent medical providers from providing treatment, including a D&C. In fact, medical providers who treated Thurman did not respond to ProPublica’s request for comment, and it remains unclear why doctors waited twenty hours before performing surgery.
This leads to a significant factual error contained in both articles, where it is stated that D&C are “[felonies], with few exceptions.” Simply put, this statement is false. Instead, a D&C is only illegal when it falls under the definition of abortion, defined in the statute as “the act of using, prescribing, or administering any instrument, substance, device, or other means with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy with knowledge that termination will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of an unborn child.”
Performing a D&C in either of the cases does not fall under this definition because the pregnancies were already terminated, therefore any subsequent medical procedure could not be done with the purpose of termination.
ProPublica could have interviewed or cited other sources who readily acknowledge this reality. The American Association of Pro Life OBGYNs (AAPLOG) wrote a long thread on X detailing, from a medical perspective, why there was no legal risk to immediate surgery.
The organization could also have turned to pro-choice sources, including the Abortion Defense Network. In their 2024 guide to medical professionals, the organization advises “it is legal for providers to give medical care during or after a self-managed abortion” in the state of Georgia “provided there is no cardiac activity.”
Implications of Progressive Propaganda
Sowing public distrust in the ability to access medical care serves no purpose, other than the advancement of her political agenda in a tight election season.
Ironically, as discussed by AAPLOG, media misinformation on this issue instills fear into women, who may mistakenly believe their state outlaws miscarriage care. Although the reasons Thurman and Miller were hesitant to seek care, hyperbolic media reports and irresponsible political rhetoric cultivate a culture where it is reasonable for women to mistakenly believe medical care is illegal. This underscores how easy access to abortion -- not safety -- is the pro-choice goal.
Ultimately, the issue of abortion in a post-Roe America is a story of significant interest to the public and should spark a genuine dialogue with complete reporting exploring the issue from pro-choice and pro-life viewpoints.
Instead, as with many cultural issues, left-wing allies run a familiar playbook with media and Democratic government agents seeking to solidify a singular message that misinforms the public and is, as a spokesman for Georgia governor Brian Kemp stated, “hyperbolic fearmongering.”
Image: ProPublica
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