In the US state of Georgia, a 30-year old who has been declared “brain-dead” by doctors has been kept alive since February due to the state’s strict abortion law.
Adriana Smith had been experiencing intense headaches in early February when she presented herself to a hospital in Atlanta. According to her mother April Newkirk, the young nurse—who was nine weeks pregnant with her second child at the time—was given medication and released without having any tests or scans conducted on her.
The next day, Smith’s boyfriend woke up to find her gasping for air and making gargling noises, Newkirk told the local news station WXIA.
She was rushed to hospital, where CT scans revealed multiple blood clots in her brain. Her mother said that Smith was declared brain-dead and has “been breathing through machines for more than 90 days.”
According to WXIA, the hospital plans to keep Smith in that condition until the fetus can safely survive on his own, most likely at around 32 weeks.
“It’s torture for me,” April Newkirk told the Atlanta TV station. “I come here and I see my daughter breathing, by the ventilator, but she’s not there.”
In Georgia, the state’s LIFE Act ensures a near-total abortion ban, where abortions are illegal after cardiac activity can be detected, usually around the sixth week of pregnancy.
The Act was enforced in 2022 after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, thereby abolishing the constitutional right to an abortion. Limited exceptions do apply, such as in circumstances involving rape or incest or to protect the mother’s life, but since Smith is brain-dead, doctors are not required to take her health into account.
According to Smith’s family, the doctors keeping her on ventilators at Emory University Hospital have maintained they are not legally permitted to consider any other options.
“It should have been left up to the family,” Newkirk said. “I’m not saying that we would have chose to terminate her pregnancy, but [what] I’m saying is: We should have had a choice.”
She added that doctors have discovered fluid on the baby’s brain.
“She’s pregnant with my grandson,” Newkirk said of her daughter, who is now 21 weeks pregnant. “But my grandson may be blind, may not be able to walk … we don’t know if he’ll live once she has him.”
One spokesperson for the hospital told NBC News that the health care system “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.”
“Our top priorities continue to be the safety and wellbeing of the patients we serve,” the spokesperson said.
But several reproductive rights groups continue to object to the horrific situation Smith and her family are facing, including Monica Simpson, the executive director of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Georgia’s abortion law.
“It is deadly to be Black and pregnant in a state where reproductive care is limited and criminalized,”Simpson said in a statement.
“Nearly half of Georgia’s counties are reproductive care deserts, all while looming Medicaid cuts threaten to worsen access to care. Adriana Smith is a mother, daughter, and nurse who deserves a healthy pregnancy. Like so many Black women, Adriana spoke up for herself. She expressed what she felt in her body, and as a health care provider, she knew how to navigate the medical system.”
“She was declared brain dead after doctors found multiple blood clots, but by then, it was already too late. Because of Adriana’s pregnancy and Georgia’s abortion ban, her family was told that doctors must keep Adriana on life support until the fetus is viable outside of the womb. First, Adriana deserves to be trusted by her healthcare professionals. Second, her family deserves the right to have decision-making power about her medical decisions. Instead, they have endured 90 days of retraumatization, expensive medical costs, and the cruelty of being unable to resolve and move toward healing.”
Adding to the burden of having her daughter’s bodily rights violated, Smith’s mother is also being forced to cover the medical bills. “Every day that goes by, it’s more cost, more trauma, more questions,” she said.
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