Why a brain-dead woman in Georgia remains on life support: The unsettling power of strict abortion laws

In an Atlanta hospital, Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old nurse and mother, remains on life support after being declared brain-dead more than 90 days ago. Her family says her fetus, now about 22 weeks along, is continuing to grow, sustained by machines, even as they wrestle with profound grief and an impossible situation.“He has his toes, arms, limbs – everything is forming,” her mother, April Newkirk, told 11Alive. “We’re just hoping he makes it.” The family has named the baby Chance, a name that captures both hope and heartbreak. “Right now, the journey is for baby Chance to survive,” Newkirk said on Monday. “Whatever condition God allows him to come here in, we’re going to love him just the same.”Adriana Smith’s case has become a flashpoint in the national debate over Georgia’s abortion laws, following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. In Georgia, abortion is banned after about six weeks of pregnancy, with added language around “fetal personhood” — a doctrine that grants embryos and fetuses full legal protections. Newkirk said doctors told the family that the law required them to keep Smith alive in order to preserve the pregnancy. “We didn’t have a choice or a say about it,” she told local news. “We want the baby. That’s a part of my daughter. But the decision should have been left to us – not the state.”According to 11Alive, Smith was about eight weeks pregnant when she went to the hospital in February with severe headaches. She was given medication and discharged. The next day, she woke up gasping for air and was rushed back to the hospital. Doctors found blood clots in her brain, and she was declared brain-dead within hours.The hospital plans to keep Smith on life support until early August, when they expect to deliver the baby via cesarean section, 11Alive reported. But the prognosis is grim. Newkirk said last week that the baby has fluid in the brain. “He may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he’s born,” she said.Medical experts share her concerns. “The chances of there being a healthy newborn at the end of this is very, very small,” Dr. Steven Ralston, director of maternal fetal medicine at George Washington University, told the Washington Post.In a statement to the Washington Post, the hospital said it “uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individualized treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia’s abortion laws and all other applicable laws.”Georgia’s attorney general, Chris Carr, has since issued a statement saying the state’s six-week abortion ban “does not require medical professionals to keep women alive on life support after being declared brain-dead.” Removing life support is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy,” Carr’s spokesperson, Kara Murray, said in the statement.But some anti-abortion advocates see the situation differently. Georgia state Sen. Ed Setzler, who sponsored the state’s abortion ban, told the Associated Press, “It is completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child. I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life. I think the hospital is acting appropriately.”Students for Life of America, a national anti-abortion group, also supported the hospital’s decision. “While Adriana can no longer speak for herself, her son’s life still matters. Her doctors are doing the right thing by treating him as a unique patient,” the organization said in a statement, which accompanied a fundraiser for Smith’s family.Smith’s family has started their own fundraiser to help cover the mounting costs of her care and to prepare for the possibility that baby Chance will be born with disabilities. Her mother’s plea is simple but deeply human: “We didn’t have a choice or a say about it,” she said. “We just want what’s best for him and for Adriana.”