Brain dead Georgia woman forced to be kept alive under state's abortion ban

Daily Mail​

15-05-2025

A woman who was declared brain dead nearly three months ago is being kept alive in Georgia to continue her pregnancy due to the state's heartbeat bill.
Adriana Smith, 30, was hospitalized in early February for intense headaches, and doctors found multiple blood clots in her brain, according to her family.
Doctors reportedly attempted surgery to relieve the pressure, but Smith was left brain-dead after the operation.
She's being kept alive through intensive medical intervention so she can carry her pregnancy to term.
Georgia passed the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act in 2019, and Governor Brian Kemp signed it into law, requiring medical professionals can't perform an abortion if a heartbeat is detected.
The law cited two exceptions in the case of a medical emergency or if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.
A medical emergency is defined in the law as an event where the abortion was necessary to save a mother's life or 'the substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.'
Abortions can also be performed if a medical professional believes that the child would be born with a 'chromosomal anomaly' where the baby would die after birth.
Smith's case represents a complicated part of the law because an abortion wouldn't save her life, and a heartbeat was already detected in her unborn baby.
She was nearly nine weeks pregnant when she was admitted to the hospital, and her family says doctors are keeping her alive until the baby can survive outside the womb, which is around 32 weeks.
Her mother, April Newkirk, opened up to local NBC affiliate, WXIA-TV, about the trauma Smith's condition has caused their family.
'She's been breathing through machines for more than 90 days. It's torture for me,' Newkirk said.
'I see my daughter breathing, but she's not there. And her son—I bring him to see her.'
Newkirk said Smith initially went to Northside Hospital in Atlanta, but she was released without a CT scan and was only prescribed medication.
'If they had done that or kept her overnight, they would have caught it. It could have been prevented,' Newkirk told WXIA-TV.
Smith's mother told the outlet that she went back home, and her boyfriend then called 911 when she began struggling to breathe.
In Smith's case, her pregnancy can't be terminated because an abortion wouldn't save her life, and a heartbeat had already been detected
Smith was transferred to Emory University Hospital, where she had worked as a nurse, and was recently moved to a center where she is receiving obstetric care.
Her family has taken her son to visit her and told WXIA that they told him she's just sleeping.
Newkirk is riddled with grief and believes the family should have had the choice to terminate Smith's pregnancy.
'She's pregnant with my grandson. But he may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he's born,' she told WXIA.
'This decision should've been left to us. Now we're left wondering what kind of life he'll have—and we're going to be the ones raising him.'
Newkirk also said she was worried about paying the mounting hospital bills, telling the outlet, 'Every day that goes by, it's more cost, more trauma, more questions.'
Georgia's heartbeat law caused an uproar when it was passed in 2019, with many pro-choice advocates citing the medical risk it could potentially pose.
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, 41 states have issued abortion restrictions, including 12 that have total bans.
Seven states have bans in the first 18 weeks of pregnancy, and 22 have bans after 18 weeks.
An investigative study conducted by ProPublica found last year that many woman lost their lives due to abortion bans across the country.
One of those women was Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman whose death sparked public outrage in 2022 after she suffered a miscarriage and later died when she couldn't receive medical care due to the state's abortion ban.