Vigil remembers Georgia women who died after a delay in abortion-related care 

Caption

Shanette Williams, mother of Amber Nicole Thurman, at a vigil on August 19, 2025, the third anniversary of her daughter's death.

Credit: Sofi Gratas/GPB News

The deaths of two Georgia women from abortion-related complications in 2022 have deepened calls for the abolition of the state’s abortion law, which outlaws the procedure after around six weeks of pregnancy.  

Those calls are being repeated on the third anniversary of Amber Nicole Thurman’s death. 

A vigil for the 28-year-old on Tuesday in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood took place on Aug.19, at a mural featuring Thurman and 41-year-old Candi Miller.  

Both women died from incomplete abortions and a subsequent delay in care. While Thurman died at a hospital, Miller died at home, found by her husband and children. 

Thurman's mother, Shanette Williams, has been vocal about the circumstances of her daughter’s death, garnering support from reproductive justice organizations and members of the state’s Democratic party. 

She’s said she wants the law repealed.  

RELATED: Two rallies at the Georgia Capitol demonstrate vast divide on abortion stance

On this anniversary she was surrounded by family, friends and a couple politicians, including U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff who called the lawmakers who voted for Georgia’s law “foolish.”  

“I don't take it lightly. I'm grateful. But I won't stop until we get change,” Williams said. “And we're over the Supreme Court, and say we agree that these laws have to be changed.” 

Miller’s sister, Turiya Tomlin-Randall, wants change too.  

“My sister's name was not a talking point,” Tomlin-Randall said to the crowd. “She was too afraid to go to the hospital, because Georgia law said that because she took an abortion pill, she would be imprisoned. It's unthinkable.” 

What Georgia’s law says 

Georgia’s abortion law, HB 481, says that if an ultrasound finds a “detectable human heartbeat,” no abortion shall be authorized or performed.  

RELATED: Abortions in Georgia dipped last year, evidence of a changing landscape of reproductive care 

It makes exceptions in cases of medical futility of the fetus, and medical emergencies that the law describes as “a condition in which an abortion is necessary in order to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or the substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.”  

The law does not include exceptions for mental health crisis.  

Critics of Georgia’s abortion law say it doesn’t do enough to protect pregnant people in medical emergencies. Many providers have called the law confusing, and deadly. Both have sued over the laws legality.  

Others say a lack of safeguards around medication abortion is to blame, not the law itself. In her lawsuit against providers at Piedmont Henry Hospital, Williams and her attorney hope to prove that the doctors who treated Thurman should be held responsible for delaying a critical surgery, said attorney Michael Harper.

"There's no ambiguity there," Harper said. "She's in distress, don't let her die."

A recent case in Georgia where a pregnant woman was pronounced brain dead but kept alive to carry her pregnancy to term has raised even more questions about the consequences of so-called fetal personhood language in Georgia’s law. 

In the case of Thurman and Miller’s death, both were deemed preventable by Georgia’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee, according to reporting by ProPublica.  

Caption

Friends and family of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller gather at a vigil on the third anniversary of Thurman's death. Speakers, including Senator Jon Ossoff, also used the vigil on Aug. 19, as an opportunity to demand reproductive justice in Georgia.

Credit: Sofi Gratas/GPB News

Longtime friend Ricaria Baker said her daughter would spend hours at Thurman’s house.  

“She had a pantry full of snacks,” Baker said, much to the delight of her daughter, who is the same age as the son Thurman left behind.  

Baker misses the time they spent together.  

“Our talks, laughing together, going out together, everything, everything,” Baker said.  

Baker said she didn’t expect Thurman’s death to cause such an uproar around state policy. She said her friend Amber would be shocked.  

Even nationally, Thurman’s story has been deployed as a warning against the strict abortion laws now enforced in over a dozen states.

Closer to home, it has caused a shift in perspective among those who knew her.  

“A lot of times you don't think about those things until it hits your front door,” said Michelle, a longtime family friend of Thurman’s who preferred not to provide a last name. “And then it makes you a little bit more conscious, like we should already be on the forefront to actually be mindful of these laws before it actually happens to us.” 

Black women already die at disproportionately high rates from pregnancy-related complications in Georgia.  

The most recent report from Georgia’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee covers deaths through 2022, meaning it includes Thurman and Millers. It says that 87% of deaths analyzed from 2020 to 2022 could have been prevented.