During a Fox News town hall where he was speaking to an all-female audience, Donald Trump mocked the family of Amber Thurman, who died due to Georgia’s abortion ban.
When Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, he allowed the states to implement their own abortion policies, including near-total bans or banning the procedure early in pregnancy. Georgia was one of the states that passed a six-week abortion ban. Thurman was a 28-year-old woman from Georgia who worked as a medical assistant and was a single mother to her son. In 2022, she sought an abortion but was unable to in her state due to abortion laws. As a result, she traveled to North Carolina to secure abortion pills. Unfortunately, back in Georgia, she began suffering complications. Since she was four hours away from North Carolina, she couldn’t follow up with a D&C. Instead, she was rushed to a Georgia hospital after vomiting blood and collapsing.
At the hospital, it was clear she was in dire need of care as she had fetal tissue in her uterus that caused an infection and was diagnosed with “acute severe sepsis.” She needed a D&C immediately, but doctors dragged their feet for over 17 hours and waited until she was in critical condition before performing the procedure due to fear of criminal prosecution. Thurman died during the procedure. Her death was deemed preventable if the D&C had simply been performed earlier, but abortion laws resulted in a fatal delay in care. When Trump learned Thurman’s family was participating in a press conference to speak out about her death, he made the most callous remark possible.
Donald Trump has a chilling response to Amber Thurman’s family
Recently, Trump participated in a Fox News town hall hosted by Harris Faulkner. He was supposed to be tackling women’s issues for an all-female audience. Before delving into questions, Faulkner mentioned that Thurman’s family was participating in a press conference ahead of the town hall. She expressed incredulity and annoyance that the family was issuing a sort of “prebuttal” to their town hall. In response to learning the family of a woman who suffered an abortion-related death was speaking out about their loss, Trump said sarcastically, “Oh, that’s nice.”
After a pause, he continued, “We’ll get better ratings, I promise.” To make the situation worse, the all-female audience who heard Trump’s callous remark burst out in laughter and applause, cheering him on for mocking the grieving family of Thurman.
One of Thurman’s family members is a six-year-old little boy who lost his mother to a wholly preventable death. The family released an ad in which Thurman’s mother and family share the message that their daughter died because of what Trump did. The ad includes photos of Amber with her son, including a shot of him sitting smiling in her lap and a collection of photos of them posing in matching pajamas. In response to the family’s story and loss, Trump’s first instinct was to laugh and jeer that he would get more ratings.
Trump doesn’t care about the women who have died or been left with life-long trauma and health complications due to being denied care. All he cares about is ensuring that their stories are hidden and ignored. He’s sadly correct that his Fox News town hall, where he went on incoherent rants and admitted to not knowing what IVF was, will get more attention from Republicans than a press conference of a grieving family. The whole party operates on laughing and mocking the people they are hurting while feeding Trump’s ego. If anyone had any doubt about MAGA’s hatred and lack of basic human empathy, all they need to do is listen to that town hall segment and how the entire audience of women laughed at a fellow woman’s death.
Published: Oct 17, 2024 11:55 am