Is it ultimately love that brings Emilia and Desdemona to their deaths and if so, is this justified?I'm doing a presentation on the theme of love...

I do not think that Emilia and Desdemona meet their
respective ends because of love nor that love was what ultimately brought about their
deaths.   Iago's jealousy and anger was what ultimately figured in both women's deaths. 
True, Othello did not have to kill Desdemona, but he acted like a coward instead of a
general until it was too late.

Emilia may have loved Iago
and trusted him in the beginning, but so did everyone else. How else would he have
gotten the appellation "honest Iago?" She loved him enough to believe that he only
wanted Desdemona's handkerchief for a prank, but once she found out what he had done,
she spoke the truth about what he had done.  She met her death because Iago chose to
kill her after she spoke that truth, not because of her love for
him. 

It is the same with Desdemona.  She loved Othello,
but he was too jealous and insecure to believe her, especially when "honest Iago" was
saying that she was having an affair with Cassio.  She was not especially willing to die
for love, but Othello was much stronger than she was, and, up until the end, she did not
really think he would go through with killing her.

It was
not love, but petty selfishness and jealousy that caused their
deaths.