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The family of Amber Thurman, the 28-year-old Georgia woman who died in 2022 after “preventable” delays in abortion care under the state’s restrictive law, plans to file a medical malpractice claim.

After taking abortion drugs, Thurman experienced a rare complication in which some fetal tissue remained in her body, landing her in the hospital where she fought for her life, vomiting and going in and out of consciousness.

She needed a routine procedure to remove the remaining tissue — but doctors waited 20 hours before they could operate because they were caught up in the state’s “extreme abortion laws,” Ben Crump, an attorney for the family, said at a news conference Tuesday .

Georgia’s law banning most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy took effect on July 20, 2022, just weeks after the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Overturning Roe v. Wade.

A state commission, consisting of ten doctors and other experts, recently determined that Thurman’s death was “preventable.” ProPublica reported last week. The hospital’s delay in performing the dilation and curettage (D&C) had a “major” impact on her death, the committee found.

“When I found out this was preventable … it opened up the wound that never healed,” said Shanette Williams, Thurman’s mother, as she held up a photo of her daughter at the news conference. “It’s so discouraging. It’s heartbreaking. It’s disturbing. Every emotion you can think of that a mother could have, I have.”

Crump argued that both federal and state laws played a role.

The attorney was referring to EMTALA, a federal law that requires hospitals that offer emergency services to provide stabilizing treatment to all patients. “You have a duty to stabilize her and then give her the opportunity to go to another hospital. But you can’t let her suffer and die on your hospital bed when death is ‘preventable,’” Crump said.

Georgia-based attorney Michael Harper also argued that Thurman should have been saved under Georgia’s six-week abortion law, which criminalizes abortions with limited exceptions.

Thurman, however, would have qualified for not one, but two exceptions laid out in Georgia’s “heartbeat law,” Harper said. The law allowed an abortion to be performed if a doctor determined there was a medical emergency or if the fetus was not viable – both of which applied to the 28-year-old. “There should have been no confusion,” Harper said.

A judge in Georgia on Monday lifted the state’s six-week abortion ban — years too late to save Thurman. Crump said the decision was “bittersweet for this family” because it was “out of place to save Amber’s life” but can hopefully save others from the same fate.

Her mother said Thurman, a medical assistant, was accepted into nursing school days after her death. “Now that dream has been shattered,” she said. Crump said Amber was trying to give her and her son a “better life.”

“My sister is gone. I would hate for this to happen to another mother, sister or aunt. But Amber is gone. Does she really have to be a sacrifice?’ CJ Williams, Thurman’s sister, said at the news conference. “It hurts so much because this could have been prevented. Someone needs to be held accountable.”

“We want justice. We are going to get justice for Amber,” she added.

Williams mentioned Thurman’s son, who was just six years old when tragedy struck. She said her cousin often wonders about his mother. “Why did they take his best friend?” he asks.

Another sister, Andrika, also recalled the pain of having to tell her nephew that his mother would not be coming back. She said she told the child at the time, “We can’t see her. But we can feel her in our hearts.”

Crump said he plans to file a medical malpractice claim on behalf of Thurman’s family and son. “We believe there was nothing to stop these doctors from acting,” Crump said. The attorney called the doctors “negligent” for failing to inform the patient’s mother of her daughter’s declining health and leaving the young mother in her hospital bed to vomit and “turn blue.”

The family had no choice to take Amber to another hospital because hospital staff had not informed her family about what was happening, Crump argued.

Thurman’s death is the latest tragedy to highlight the dangers of state-level abortion bans that have since proliferated. Roo was destroyed in 2022. Donald Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices – all of whom ruled in favor of overturning the landmark ruling. That decision has led to chaos and confusion as doctors and patients try to navigate the restrictive bans.

“If we don’t do something about this, this could become your family’s reality too,” Crump said.