September 20, 2024
From Feminist Women’s Health Center’s Executive Director Kwajelyn Jackson:
The staff and community of Feminist Women’s Health Center are deeply grieving after learning
about the deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller. We know that publicly re-living this pain
must be incredibly difficult for their families and loved ones and send our sincerest condolences.
We want to let the people of Georgia know that compassionate abortion care is still legal in
Georgia. While it is unfairly limited, we do not want to perpetuate the misinformation that a
6-week ban is equivalent to a total ban. At Feminist Center and many other clinics, we are
providing early abortion care in compliance with state law, including care under the ban’s
exceptions, and miscarriage management.
If you or someone you love is experiencing continuing pregnancy symptoms after a medication
abortion, or want to get follow-up care after an incomplete pregnancy loss, or simply have
questions, please call us so that we can discuss your options with you. If you are unsure if you
qualify for care in Georgia to terminate a pregnancy, please call us so that we can talk it through
with you. We want you to know that independent clinics are still here for you and will treat you
with the care and dignity you deserve.
We also want to remind you that medication abortion is extremely safe. These women did not
die because of the medications they took. They died because of the gross negligence of the
providers they sought for help. They died because of the confusing and ambiguous language
included in the law. They died because of fear of criminalization — both their own in the case of
Candi Miller, who suffered at home because she was afraid to seek care under the confusing
abortion law, and that of the healthcare providers who refused to act on Amber’s behalf. They
died because the State of Georgia has demonstrated that the assertion in its state constitution
that, “Protection to person and property is the paramount duty of government and shall be
impartial and complete. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws,” did not fully
extend to these Black women.
At Feminist Center we will keep providing compassionate abortion care alongside
comprehensive reproductive healthcare and life-saving gender-affirming care in the Clinic, and
we will keep fighting to change these cruel and unjust laws. We must repeal abortion bans and
the unnecessary regulations that criminalize pregnancy outcomes and endanger people’s lives.
We will continue to work at the Capitol with our incredible partners in the Amplify Georgia
Collaborative to pass the Reproductive Freedom Act, which will expand reproductive justice and
access to healthcare to all who need it. We will keep challenging these laws in the Courts, and
shaming the State for denying its residents their fundamental human rights. We will keep
organizing and educating our people in the Community — making sure that our critical needs are
being met, that we are informed and equipped to take our issues with us to the polls, and
inviting our folks to join us in the long fight for freedom. And we will be here when you need us.
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Feminist Women’s Health Center is a reproductive health, rights, and justice organization. We
provide direct services including abortion care, education, advocacy, leadership development,
and movement building with people across all axes of oppression so that we have the rights,
resources and respect to make empowered, informed decisions about our own bodies and
health.
