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Monday Mini: The State of Abortion in Georgia · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Will never told you production to buy her radio, and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: welcome to a Monday mini content. Warning before we get
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: into this, we are going to be talking about abortions
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and death. So if you're not in space for that today,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: totally understand. But this is really important. We're going to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: have to come back and talk about it a lot
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: because we were being very specific in this episode about
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: our home state of Georgia. It's also kind of a
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: rapidly evolving situation. So today is October fourth, twenty twenty four.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: But I wrote this, we put together this outline I
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: think September thirtieth. I checked to see if there were
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: other updates, but you know, things are changing constantly. Yes, yes,
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  Speaker 1: So today we're going to be talking about abortion and
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  Speaker 1: specifically what's going on in our home state of Georgia,
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  Speaker 1: where in twenty twenty two, a six week abortion band
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  Speaker 1: wasn't acted and you probably heard, but recently the deaths
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  Speaker 1: of two women were attributed to delays and emergency medical
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  Speaker 1: care due to the state's abortion bands, and experts maintain
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  Speaker 1: these deaths were preventable and there's a lot to break
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  Speaker 1: down here. So let's look into it. Twenty eight year
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  Speaker 1: old Amber Nicole Thurban took abortion pills and suffered a
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  Speaker 1: rare complication where her body didn't get rid of all
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  Speaker 1: of the fetal tissue. She went to the hospital for
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  Speaker 1: a routine procedure called a dilation and courtage, or a DNC,
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  Speaker 1: something the hospital could completely treat. However, earlier in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty two, Georgia had enacted an abortion band that made
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  Speaker 1: DNC's most completely illegal, with only a few exceptions. Doctors
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  Speaker 1: who performed the procedure could face up to a decade
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  Speaker 1: in jail. So Thurman waited in the hospital bed in
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  Speaker 1: pain as her infection worsened and her organs failed for
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  Speaker 1: twenty hours. She waited before the operation finally started, but
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  Speaker 1: at that point it was too late and she died.
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  Speaker 1: Thurman had decided on an abortion soon after she found
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  Speaker 1: out she was pregnant. However, her pregnancy just passed the
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  Speaker 1: six week deadline that was put into effect on July twentieth,
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. She hoped that the ban would be
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  Speaker 1: overturned so she could get an abortion close to home,
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  Speaker 1: but when that didn't happen, over the next few weeks,
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  Speaker 1: she decided to go to North Carolina, where her abortion
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  Speaker 1: would still be legal. However, the clinic was overwhelmed with
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  Speaker 1: people trying to get healthcare in the wake of other bands,
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  Speaker 1: and she missed her slot. She was instead prescribed a
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  Speaker 1: medical two pill abortion, completely legal, completely safe. Because taking
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: the day off and dealing with protesters have been costly
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  Speaker 1: and an ordeal, Thurman signed a release that she understood
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  Speaker 1: she'd need to go to the emergency room on the
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  Speaker 1: off chances something went wrong. She took the pills as
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  Speaker 1: instructed when she started noticing symptoms. The clinic in North
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  Speaker 1: Carolina would have performed the procedure she needed in an
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  Speaker 1: hour for free, but she wasn't in North Carolina anymore.
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  Speaker 1: Just a note, death due to complications of these pills
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  Speaker 1: are extremely rare. From twenty to twenty twenty four, over
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  Speaker 1: six million American women have taken the peprestone, and only
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  Speaker 1: thirty two deaths were reported to the FDA, only thirty two.
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  Speaker 1: Many of the deaths involved sepsis or things like drug
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  Speaker 1: overdoses and titchinal or accidental so after her death, a
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  Speaker 1: state committee of experts, including ten doctors, determined that her
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  Speaker 1: death was preventable, and that this delay was a quote
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  Speaker 1: large reason she died. The committee's job is to improve
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  Speaker 1: maternal health by looking into pregnancy related deaths, so that's
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: why they were looking into it. While their reviews aren't public,
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  Speaker 1: news outlets like pro Publica have confirmed at least two
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  Speaker 1: other women have died because Georgia's abortion bands have prevented
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  Speaker 1: them from accessing the care that they need in a
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  Speaker 1: timely manner. There are almost certainly more, especially because a
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  Speaker 1: lot of these committees have a lag of up to
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  Speaker 1: two years, which is why we're hearing about this now.
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  Speaker 1: This means we could be seeing a lot more stories
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  Speaker 1: coming out since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Soon
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  Speaker 1: Thurmons is being called the first official case of a
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  Speaker 1: preventable abortion related death since then, since Roe v. Wade
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  Speaker 1: was overturned, and this is what medical experts warned would happen.
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  Speaker 1: Even though Republican lawmakers pushing for these bands often point
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  Speaker 1: to exceptions for the life of the mother, this ignores
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  Speaker 1: how bodies work and how medicine works. It's also just
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  Speaker 1: cruel and pointless because you're just waiting to see if
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  Speaker 1: it gets worse. Why, And of course medical practitioners are
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  Speaker 1: worried about being prosecuted, so that adds a whole other layer.
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  Speaker 1: People have been turned away and told to come back
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  Speaker 1: when they're worse or quote crashing, even when the pregnancy
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  Speaker 1: isn't viable, even when in dangers lives. Yep, that's dangerous. Also.
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  Speaker 1: By the time Thurmann went to the hospital, she had
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  Speaker 1: vomited blood and passed out. And I don't know how
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  Speaker 1: much worse you have to get. The report on her
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  Speaker 1: death deemed it should have been immediately clear that she
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  Speaker 1: was in danger. She was diagnosed with acute severe sepsis
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  Speaker 1: at around nine thirty PM, but she didn't receive treatment
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  Speaker 1: until the next day. DNC was discussed multiple times before
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  Speaker 1: she died, so they knew this was a thing that
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  Speaker 1: they were worried about performing it. The hospital did not
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  Speaker 1: have clear instructions on how to interpret the law, and
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  Speaker 1: a lot of the wording is disturbingly vague. Weren't sure
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  Speaker 1: how like how much in danger does she have to be?
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  Speaker 1: According to ProPublica, the availability of DNC's after Roe vwwaid
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  Speaker 1: decrease the maternal death rate for women of color by
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  Speaker 1: up to forty percent, and Georgia has one of the
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  Speaker 1: country's highest maternal death rates, and black women are three
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  Speaker 1: times more at risk than white women. Maternal death rates
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  Speaker 1: are going up as part of the reason this committee exists.
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  Speaker 1: When asked to comments, Republican officials said it was part
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  Speaker 1: of a fear mongering campaign. In light of all of this,
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  Speaker 1: On September thirtieth, twenty twenty four, a judge in Georgia
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  Speaker 1: struck down the state's six week abortion law. Fulton County
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  Speaker 1: Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote, liberty in Georgia includes,
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  Speaker 1: in its meaning, in its petions, and in its bundle
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  Speaker 1: of rights, the power of a woman to control her
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  Speaker 1: own body, to decide what happens to it, and in
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  Speaker 1: it antert state interference with her healthcare choices. When a
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  Speaker 1: fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can
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  Speaker 1: assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then and
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  Speaker 1: only then, may society intervene. An arbitrary six week ban
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  Speaker 1: on post embryonic cardiac activity pregnancy terminations is inconsistent with
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  Speaker 1: these rights and the proper balance that a viability rule
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  Speaker 1: establishes between a woman's rights of liberty and privacy and
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  Speaker 1: society's interest in protecting and caring for unborn infants, So
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  Speaker 1: his new ruling would allow abortions for up to twenty weeks,
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  Speaker 1: which is what it was. An appeal has already been
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  Speaker 1: announced though goes yeah. But if it stands, it could
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  Speaker 1: open the doors for a similar overturning in nearby states
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  Speaker 1: because here in the South. It's part of the issue
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  Speaker 1: is a lot of neighboring states have similar things. You
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: have to travel pretty far to get one. At the
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  Speaker 1: same time, people in Georgia, both providers and otherwise, have
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  Speaker 1: spoken about how much the uncertainty weighs on them. So
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  Speaker 1: like performing abortions, who knows how long we could be
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  Speaker 1: doing this. Before the band was enacted, there was an
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  Speaker 1: estimated four four hundred abortions a month in Georgia, and
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  Speaker 1: after it was enacted it's about twenty four hundred. The
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  Speaker 1: legal challenge that led to this overturning was brought by
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  Speaker 1: Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Collective against the State
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  Speaker 1: of Georgia. So even if things can feel hopeless, there
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  Speaker 1: are people doing this work and things can be changed.
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  Speaker 1: The executive director of Sister Song, Monicas Simpson, said today's
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  Speaker 1: when was hard fought and is a significant step in
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  Speaker 1: the right direction towards achieving reproductive justice in Georgia, where
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  Speaker 1: you are encouraged that a Georgia court has ruled for
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  Speaker 1: bodily autonomy. So I think we're going to see a
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  Speaker 1: lot more stories about this right than the coming weeks.
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  Speaker 2: It's already being challenged right now, so I have a
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  Speaker 2: feeling this is going to lead up to Supreme Court
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  Speaker 2: hearing again.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe yep, but.
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  Speaker 2: Again, just like you said that this is the good
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  Speaker 2: news that it will continue to be challenged. Unfortunately, is
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  Speaker 2: at the cost of women's lives.
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  Speaker 1: Yep.
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  Speaker 2: I know not too long ago the parents of Amber
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  Speaker 2: was loud about how she is not a statistic and
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  Speaker 2: that this was preventable and this is a heinous way
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  Speaker 2: of losing their child because again, it was an easy procedure.
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  Speaker 2: It should have it shouldn't It should not have happened.
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  Speaker 2: And we've seen this all over the country. We've seen
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  Speaker 2: more and more women being charged for murder with miscarriages
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  Speaker 2: as well. Uh, there's a lot happening that we can't constant.
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  Speaker 2: It's definitely constant. I have seen about abortion being on
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  Speaker 2: the ballot in Georgia.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, because it's not currently but is it They're going
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: to put it on the ballot.
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  Speaker 2: I think there's a whole conversation, and I know Florida
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  Speaker 2: for sure is having a conversation and they are pushing
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  Speaker 2: to have that on the ballot, and most of the
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  Speaker 2: citizens of Florida are like, yeah, we want it, but
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  Speaker 2: Descantas is like fighting hard against it. I believe it's
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  Speaker 2: being talked about in Georgia. There's a lot happening. We
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  Speaker 2: know this as a newly purple state that we are
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  Speaker 2: having to fight so much, and we say as in
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  Speaker 2: the collective state of Georgia. There's also just been in
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  Speaker 2: a hurricane that has caused massive havoc on the southeast,
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  Speaker 2: including areas of Georgia. Atlanta. Augusta has hit really hard,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: which is south of Atlanta. But there's a lot happening,
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  Speaker 2: and including our Board of Elections and voter registration being
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: constantly challenged because they are trying to do hand ballots,
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  Speaker 2: hand counts. They are trying to already disenfranchise so many people.
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  Speaker 2: Our deadline registration deadline is coming up, and they've done
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  Speaker 2: a lot to kid out a lot of voters. Like
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  Speaker 2: it is hot, like I'm almost i guess, just to
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: be too real, lost hope in Georgia, not because of
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  Speaker 2: the people of Georgia, but because of the corruption that
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: has happened in the board, even to the point that
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  Speaker 2: our leaders are afraid to do either way, like they're
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  Speaker 2: not even they're not condemning anything and they're not approving
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  Speaker 2: of anything. So it's just it's a show essentially down here.
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  Speaker 2: And and a lot of this also, the abortion stuff,
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  Speaker 2: it is.
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  Speaker 1: A lot.
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  Speaker 2: It is a lot happening here.
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  Speaker 1: It is, it is. But definitely check out if this
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: is something that's important to you. Check out organizations who
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: are doing work like this. Check to see if you're
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: registered to vote, even if you think you are, check again.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, this is We're gonna have to come back
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and talk about this because, like I said, this is
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  Speaker 1: pretty specific to our region, but it's happening. It's happening
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: everywhere and not just in the US unfortunately. But yeah,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: if you listeners, if you have any resources or any
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: organizations we should check out. If you've seen anything where
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: you are wherever that is that we should be talking about,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: please let us know. You can email us a Steffani
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: your mom stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: us on Twitter, at moms to podcast on Instagram and
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: TikTok at Stuff I've Never Told You. We're also on YouTube.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: We have a tea public store, and we have a
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: book where we do talk about abortion. You can get
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: wherever you get your books. Thanks as always to our
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: super producer consenaor executive Trust to Maya and your contribuer Joey.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Thanks to you for listening. Stuff I Never
• 12:34
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