Organizers and supporters of the Trust Black Women initiative, created by reproductive justice group SisterSong, raise their fists at a rally on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 outside of the Georgia State Capitol building following recent reports that two Georgia women died after not receiving timely abortion and medical care. (Meimei Xu/WABE)
Sept. 30, 2024 update: Two days after the rally, Fulton Judge Robert McBurney ruled that the state’s abortion law is unconstitutional, blocking it from enforcement. He ruled that women are entitled to abortions before the fetus reaches viability.
Advocates are continuing to call for the repeal of Georgia’s six-week abortion law following recent media reports that found that two Black Georgia women died after not receiving timely medical and abortion care.
Around 80 people gathered at Liberty Plaza outside the Georgia State Capitol for a Saturday rally organized by SisterSong, a reproductive justice group in Atlanta, as part of its Trust Black Women initiative. SisterSong Georgia Coordinator Danielle Rodriguez organized Saturday’s event.
According to ProPublica, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller both died after experiencing complications from taking an abortion pill. Thurman waited in a hospital bed for 20 hours to receive a procedure called a dilation and curettage before she died, and Miller’s family said Miller did not go to the doctor because of the law. Experts said their deaths were preventable and that Georgia’s ban contributed to their deaths.
Black women in particular experience discrimination and bias in health care, especially maternal health care; Georgia public health data shows Black women are more than twice as likely as white women to face maternal mortality.
Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, called on the audience to continue advocating for reproductive justice and hold local elected officials accountable.
“We cannot let this moment pass and not give honor to the lives of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller. We cannot let them die in vain,” she said. “We found this information out two years after we lost these sisters. These families have been grieving for two years. But now they know they’ve got a movement behind them.”
Attendees of a rally on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, left flowers and candles at an altar for Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, created by Black Feminist Future Senior Power Building Organizer Yemi Combahee. The vigil is next to the Liberty Bell outside the Georgia State Capitol. Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller died after not receiving timely medical care after experiencing complications from taking abortion pills. (Meimei Xu/WABE)
Signed into law in 2019 by Gov. Brian Kemp and revived by the state’s Supreme Court in 2022, House Bill 481 bans abortions if the fetus has a “detectable human heartbeat,” which usually happens around six weeks of pregnancy. The law has exceptions for procedures without which the person carrying the pregnancy would die or suffer permanent physical impairment. More than 20 states across the U.S. have now passed bans or restrictions on abortions that go further than the original standard of Roe v. Wade.
Vice President Kamala Harris rallied in Atlanta on Sept. 20, specifically addressing abortion rights and Thurman’s death. However, the speakers at Saturday’s rally largely focused on state and local politics and did not endorse any presidential candidates.
State Rep. Park Cannon urged attendees to push for a repeal at the start of the new legislative session.
“They passed House Bill 481 knowing that today would come. So we stand here as elected officials, myself, Rep. Derrick Jackson, Rep. Eric Bell and many other members to say we can repeal this law,” she said.
State Rep. Park Cannon spoke about repealing House Bill 481 at a rally on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (Meimei Xu/WABE)
Garrison Douglas, a spokesperson for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, wrote in a statement that “every life is precious, including that of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller,” saying activists and the press misinformed the public about the law.
“They would likely both be alive today if partisan activists and so-called journalists had not spread such egregious misinformation and propaganda that fostered a culture of fear and confusion,” Douglas wrote. “Rather than use their tragic deaths for political gain or to reignite the same deadly misinformation campaign that puts patients’ lives at risk, these activists and journalists should honor Amber and Candi’s memory by ensuring that Georgians know the truth about the LIFE Act and their healthcare options in our state.”
Christina Francis, the CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs, told WABE’s “Closer Look” host Rose Scott that Georgia’s law would have allowed the physicians to perform operations that would have saved their lives.
Kavitha Surana, who authored the original ProPublica reports, told Scott in a separate show that many doctors find the law’s language vague and avoid performing abortion procedures to avoid prosecution.
The two-hour rally featured other speakers from reproductive and civil rights organizations, such as the ACLU of Georgia, Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, Mothering Justice, Black Feminist Future, Black Voters Matter, Indivisible and more.
Organizers passed out green bandanas ahead of the rally to represent the Green Wave reproductive rights movement in Latin America.
Fanny Cata Gómez-Lugo, the director of research and advocacy programs at the Women’s Equality Center, spoke about the movement and the significance of the day, Sept. 28, as the Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion, or Campaña 28 de Septiembre por la Despenalización del Aborto. Children born after Sept. 28, 1871 from enslaved women in Brazil were free.
Fanny Cata Gómez-Lugo, director of research and advocacy programs at Women’s Equality Center, speaks at an abortion rights rally on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (Meimei Xu/WABE)
“Today, our fight transcends borders and language barriers to become a powerful wave that condemns the preventable death of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller due to the unjust and inhumane legislation that restricted their access to safe abortion,” Gómez-Lugo said.
Melanie Campbell, the president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and a speaker at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, led the crowd in a chant.
“We’re going to vote, we’re going to fight, we’re going to organize, we’re going to organize past Nov. 5 and we’re going to what? Win,” she said.
Melanie Campbell, the president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, spoke at a rally while participants stoop to put offerings at an altar created for Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller. (Meimei Xu/WABE)
In a speech at the rally, Andrea Young, the executive director of the ACLU of Georgia, pointed to an ongoing lawsuit against the state. In 2022, SisterSong and several other organizations filed a lawsuit against Georgia to block H.B. 481. In October 2023, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the six-week ban.
Angela Doyinsola Aina is the co-founder and executive director of Atlanta-based Black Mamas Matter Alliance, which performs research and advocates for Black birthing people.
“Amber Thurman was studying to be a healer, a nurse in a state that is begging people for nurses. I need y’all to understand how ridiculous these folks that make decisions on our bodies, and they have the audacity to say that they’re pro-life,” she said. “You are killers at the State Capitol.”
In an interview after the rally, Aina called for further investment in holistic maternal health care.
“If you care about maternal health equity, if you care and are concerned about these preventable deaths, especially what happened with Amber and Candi, then we need to show up during these elections. We need you to vote down the ballot,” she said. “Vote for candidates at the local and at the state level, at the city level who are going to get behind health care for all.”
