Amber scheduled a 9-week surgical abortion at a North Carolina facility that is unnamed in coverage, but is described as being a four hour trip by car. Before sunrise on August 13, Amber and her friend Ricaria Baker headed off. However, they ran into heavy traffic and arrived late for the appointment.
According to Baker, clinic staff told the women that Amber could either reschedule the surgical abortion or could opt for a chemical abortion. After talking to clinic staff and pondering the logistics of a second trip, Amber opted for chemical abortion and took the first pill of the two-step abortion.
Amber and her friend returned to Georgia. The following day, Amber took the second dose as directed.
Over the ensuing days, Amber had the severe cramping and bleeding that are common with these at-home abortions. The abortion clinic reportedly would have done a free follow-up D&C for her, but the four-hour drive was too far. Amber toughed it out.
On the evening of August 18, the symptoms went from fairly typical for a chemical abortion to alarming: Amber vomited blood and passed out. Her boyfriend called 911. Medics transported Amber to Piedmont Henry Hospital in Stockbridge, near Atlanta. They arrived at 6:51 p.m.
ProPublica reports that they obtained the summary narrative of Amber's hospital stay as was provided to the maternal mortality review committee. Upon admission, Amber's lower abdomen was tender. Her white blood count was high and her blood pressure low. On one occasion, Amber got up to use the bathroom and passed out, hitting her head.
A pelvic exam noted a foul odor, and an ultrasound showed possible retained tissue in the uterus.
Note: The ultrasound did not show a living fetus. There was no heartbeat. Thus the Georgia "heartbeat law" did not and could not apply in Amber's case. What follows is currently inexplicable even though abortion advocates want you to believe that hospital staff were just being careful not to break the law that clearly did not apply in Amber's case because she was not pregnant with a viable fetus.
I give the hospital credit: They did start IV antibiotics at 9:38 pm. But rather than following up by removing the source of the infection, they discussed possibly doing a D&C the following day.
By 5:14 am, Amber was hemorrhaging. She was given more IV fluids and antibiotics, but still did not do what ProPublica falsely characterizes as "the newly criminalized procedure" which, again, was not criminalized because there was no live fetus involved. In fact, there didn't even seem to be a dead fetus involved.
Instead of doing a routine, perfectly legal D&C, they tested Amber for STDs and pneumonia. They administered Levophed, a drug to increase her falling blood pressure.
At 6:45, due to her continued falling blood pressure, Amber was transferred to the ICU. Again, nobody took any steps to remove the source of the infection by performing a routine and completely legal D&C. They continued to drag their feet. At 7:14 they discussed doing the obvious -- performing the D&C -- but didn't.
Some time after around 9 am, lab work indicated that Amber's organs were failing. Still the doctors did nothing.
At 12:05 pm, somebody at the ICU notified the OB/GYN that Amber's condition was deteriorating.
Still nobody did anything.
It was 2 pm before they decided to go ahead with surgery. But by now, Amber was in such bad condition that they didn't just go in vaginally and do a routine D&C. They did open abdominal surgery. The surgeon noted that Amber's bowel was in bad shape but he or she didn't feel that Amber was stable enough to survive removing the bowel, so the surgeon just did a hysterectomy. During the surgery, Amber's heart stopped.
ProPublica flat-out claims that Georgia law forbids a D&C for a hemorrhaging woman in spite of the fact that the law is very clear: Doctors are allowed to take good-faith measures to protect women. Abortion is the deliberate killing of an embryo or fetus. If there is no live fetus to kill, then anything the doctor does is, by definition, not an abortion.
But the abortion lobby wants us to believe that this is some sort of impenetrable grey zone. They want abortion-on-demand for all nine months of pregnancy, with no obligation to save babies that emerge alive and viable during abortions.
Clearly they're willing to allow women like Amber to die needlessly to achieve this goal.
Amber's relatives should be going after the hospital for allowing her to die, but they will probably get swept up by the abortion lobby.
Watch A Win for Abortion Enthusiasts on YouTube.
Sources:
- "Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.," ProPublica, September 16, 2024
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