Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday addressed the family of a young woman who died in what a ProPublica investigation revealed was a preventable death resulting from Georgia’s ultra-restrictive abortion law.
It was the first time the family had spoken out since the investigative news outlet reported this week on Amber Nicole Thurman’s death after the 28-year-old left the state in 2022 to secure the abortion pill and could not receive the care she needed from a Georgia hospital when a complication arose.
“This story is a story that is, sadly, not the only story of what has been happening since these bans have taken place,” Harris told the woman’s mother and sister, who were seated in the audience for a live-streamed campaign event hosted by media mogul Oprah Winfrey.
“And in state after state, including yours, these abortion bans have been passed that criminalize health care providers — in a couple of states, prison for life, Oprah, prison for life … for a doctor or a nurse providing health care,” Harris said, blaming her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, for appointing the U.S. Supreme Court justices who would help overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. “Here’s the problem with that — so she’s on death’s door before you actually decide to give her help … like, literally a doctor or nurse has to say she might die any minute?”
The woman’s mother, Shanette, spoke out for the first time, delivering an emotional account of losing her daughter in what a medical examiner deemed a preventable death after doctors waited 20 hours to perform a surgical procedure that may have saved her life. Georgia law criminalizes practitioners who perform abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
“I want y’all to know Amber was not a statistic,” Shanette said. “She was loved by a family, a strong family, and we would have done whatever to get my baby, our baby, the help that she needed.”
It was a powerful moment during an event that was clearly aimed at undecided suburban women. The live-stream was conducted in an interview format by Winfrey and featured a bevy of stars beaming in from expensive-looking rooms, including Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Chris Rock, Tracee Ellis Ross and Meryl Streep.
Winfrey’s questions were tailored to persuadable voters with concerns about reproductive rights, the economy and immigration.
But during one awkward exchange on gun safety and school shootings, Harris declared: “If somebody breaks into my house, they’re getting shot.” A moment later, she added: “Probably should not have said that.”
Winfrey early on teed up a softball question for Harris on the influx of immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, which has been subjected to bomb threats and chaos since Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, baselessly insisted the immigrant population there has been eating neighbors’ cats and dogs. “Everybody in America — left, right, middle — has concerns about immigration,” Winfrey said.
“I take very seriously the importance of having a secure border and ensuring the safety of the American people,” Harris said before stating she’d back the bipartisan bill with resources for the border that Trump instructed congressional Republicans to kill earlier this year.
“He preferred a run on a problem instead of fixing a problem,” Harris said of Trump. “He put his personal political security before border security,” Harris added.
Harris appeared before a live audience of 400 people in Oakland County, Michigan ― a swing state where recent polls show Harris leading Trump. Harris’ campaign touted before the event that 200,000 people had committed to viewing it online as of Thursday afternoon.
“Kamala Harris unleashed a unified force unlike anything we’ve seen in politics for a very long time. And I know lot of people are feeling it because it actually is hope and joy rising,” said Winfrey, one of Harris’ biggest Hollywood endorsers.
The event brought together various identity coalitions that have stepped up to support Harris since she replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee in July, including Cat Ladies for Kamala, Comics for Kamala, Swifties for Kamala, Win With Black Women ― and Hollywood’s liberal elite.
“I’m just smiling from ear to ear,” said Cranston, the star of “Breaking Bad.” “Oprah, I have never felt this much joy and optimism in a campaign in a long time. I’m just so appreciative of Kamala to bring back that sense of optimism and to squash the cynicism and the vitriol and the rancor that just seems to be floating all around Washington.”
“I want to bring my daughters to the White House to meet this Black woman president,” said comedian Chris Rock. “I think she would make a great president. I’m ready to turn the page, man. All the hate, negativity, it’s gotta stop.”