If Amber Nicole Thurman were alive today, the 28-year-old would most likely have become a nurse.
“She would never know that she got accepted into nursing school because August the 19th was the end of her life, and August the 21st I got the call that she was accepted into nursing school,” said Thurman’s mother, Shanette Williams.
Thurman died in 2022 at an Atlanta hospital after doctors delayed giving her a life-saving procedure that she needed after suffering complications from abortion pills. That year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections and Georgia’s abortion law, which limits an abortion from being performed after six weeks of pregnancy, went into effect.
Thurman’s death, along with that of Candi Miller, another Georgia woman who died from abortion complications that year, drew national attention to the state’s abortion law as medical reviewers later determined their deaths were preventable. Advocates attribute their deaths to the state’s restrictive abortion law.
Family members of the two women spoke at a Tuesday night screening in Grant Park of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Devil Is Busy, a film that follows staff at an Atlanta women’s health clinic as they navigate the challenges created by Georgia’s abortion restrictions. They described how the restrictions to abortion access have forever changed their lives.
“I want to know, how did we get here? Now that we are here, what do we do to change it? I don’t want to be here. I want to be in the politician’s face. … I want action, because I’m tired of looking at my grandchild and not having results,” Williams said.
The event was hosted by the Feminist Center for Reproductive Liberation — the Atlanta-based clinic featured in the documentary — and reproductive justice organization Free & Just. It brought together health care providers, advocates, and community members for a screening and panel discussion about the challenges of providing and seeking abortion care in Georgia.
The families’ testimony reflects a broader concern about how Georgia’s abortion restrictions are affecting patients, particularly Black women. The state already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, and Black women face significantly higher risks during pregnancy and childbirth.
Thurman died of septic shock in August 2022 after doctors delayed performing a common dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure to remove fetal tissue from her uterus following her taking abortion pills. Based on the Georgia law, doctors overseeing Thurman believed they had to wait until her condition was considered life-threatening or possibly face up to 10 years in prison.
By the time they performed the procedure on Thurman 20 hours later, it was too late. She died on the operating table.
“They treated my child like she was a statistic,” Williams said.
Turiya Tomlin-Randall, the sister of Candi Miller, described the impact her sister’s death has had on their family.
“She wasn’t able to get the care that she needed for her life, for the three children that she has left. Our family has been forever changed. … It has made me become the advocate that I never thought I would ever be fighting for because it didn’t affect me, but now it affects me, and I realize that it affects everyone,” Tomlin-Randall said.
Miller was a 41-year-old mother of three whose chronic health issues threatened her unexpected pregnancy in 2022.
A medical examiner’s autopsy failed to determine the exact cause of Miller’s death after taking abortion pills. But medical records noted she ingested a “lethal combination of painkillers” after refusing to see a doctor due to Georgia’s abortion law, according to ProPublica.
Cited accounts given by Miller’s family along, with medical records, stated she “had no history of drug use.”
“People need to understand that an abortion is not a one-size-fits-all. It’s multifaceted. … There are so many more women. … Something has to change,” Tomlin-Randall said.
Williams told Capital B Atlanta about how the experience has connected her with other families navigating the consequences of Georgia’s abortion restrictions. She said she has developed a close relationship with the mother of Adriana Smith, another pregnant Black woman whose death last year drew national attention to how the state’s abortion policies affect patients. Smith was declared brain dead but was forced to remain on life support for about four months so her unborn fetus could develop.
“I will kick down doors to get change. But who do we have that’s really with us, that says I’m going to roll up my sleeve. … We have to put boots on the ground, because this is absolutely pathetic,” Williams said.
Staff at the clinic featured in the documentary also spoke about the challenges providers face operating under the current legal landscape.
Aneisha Jacobs, director of nursing, recounted the moment when Georgia’s six-week abortion law went into effect and how the clinic had to begin turning away patients who were over six weeks along in their pregnancy.
“Everyone started being excluded, except for a certain amount of people, and the people that would seek care at the clinic, maybe they’ve been there before, they couldn’t go there again,” Jacobs said. “So now calls are raining into the clinic that are now a ‘No, we can’t help you.’”
Suki O, an Atlanta-area abortion care provider and ultrasound technician, said patients often arrive already worried about what the law might mean for their care.
“To see the wheels turning in their head … they’re holding their breath, afraid of being turned away. They’re scared, stressed, and exhausted just from getting here,” she said.
As advocates and medical providers continue to push for more access to abortion and changes to women’s health care in Georgia, families of those who have lost their lives to the current restrictions encouraged the community to have more open conversations about abortion. They also pushed people to watch the film.
“Watch it for your daughters, watch it for your mothers, watch it for your aunts. Watch it for yourself. It could be you,” Williams said. “For the men, watch it because if you’re a protector and you love your women, you might want to watch this. Life depends on it.”
The Devil is Busy is available to view on HBO Max.
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