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The Independent
6 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
The brain-dead American woman being forced to have her baby – and why the UK must stay vigilant
We're just human incubators to them,' say the headlines. The reality behind them is more harrowing still. Adriana Smith's story has, for the last few weeks, prompted uniform outrage around the world – a 30-year-old nurse from Georgia, brain-dead, kept alive only by machines against her family's wishes. Adriana should have been laid to rest months ago: the blood clots on her brain, found when she was admitted to hospital with severe pain in February, mean that, legally, she is no longer living. Except, she was nine weeks pregnant. For more than 90 days, Adriana's body has been kept artificially alive, officially no longer her own, to prioritise the weeks-old pregnancy. Despite the protests of her grieving family – including her mother and her seven-year-old son – medics at the Emory University Hospital say there is no choice. The state of Georgia is answerable: its six-week abortion ban, known as the heartbeat law, which prohibits the termination of a pregnancy once a heartbeat has been detected, constitutes 'foetal personhood' and declares the foetus an individual patient. The 'personhood' of a woman like Adriana, then, is denied. There is no denying how monstrous the situation is – and how unbelievable it should be. In 2019, the very year that Georgia's heartbeat bill was passed, a like-for-like depiction of Adriana's story provided a stark warning in series three of the TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Back then, it was the shocking, but dystopian – imagined – consequence of the end of bodily autonomy; little more than five years later, it's a reality that has not only sparked furious indignation, but further highlighted the maternal mortality crisis continuing to affect Black women. The foetus in Adriana's body is now 23 weeks – over halfway to full gestation – and she will remain in this position, between life and death, for at least another 10 weeks. According to reports, doctors have seen fluid in the foetus's brain; it's not clear whether it will survive. 'My grandson may be blind, may not be able to walk, we don't know if he'll live once she has him,' April Newkirk, Adriana's mother, told the Atlanta TV channel WXIA. The family are already now facing an untold financial burden on top of the sudden loss of Adriana. 'And I'm not saying we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy. What I'm saying is we should have had a choice.' In the US, not much has been heard from anti- abortion groups who lobbied for these laws in response to the family going public. In fact, most have been curiously quiet despite their seeds having been sown. The writer and activist Jessica Valenti called them cowards – 'it's that simple', she wrote last week. But in that silence a precedent could be set. Adriana might be the first woman we know of publicly to have been subjected to something so cruel, but it's unlikely she'll be the last. 'This is the effect of abortion bans – this is what happens when women are treated like incubators, whether they are alive or dead,' Rachael Clarke, head of advocacy at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), says. 'The only purpose of women in these states, essentially, is to bear children that many of them do not want or cannot care for. We've seen the impact that bans have on women's lives; we've seen the impact on their health and their children's health. It's nothing but vindictive.' Around the world, the statistics speak for themselves. Where abortion rights are granted, rates drop, as do the number of maternal deaths – in Nepal, for example, the number of women dying due to pregnancy and childbirth dropped by 72 per cent after abortion was legalised. Generally, more reproductive rights lead to strong communities and even economies. The UK appears to be one of the most progressive countries when it comes to reproductive rights, yet abortion is still not entirely legal here. The 1967 Abortion Act, now 58 years old and decidedly unfit for purpose, allows terminations only under specific, limited circumstances. Anything outside of those carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Outside of those parameters (before 23 weeks and six days' gestation; being given permission to terminate by two doctors who must decide 'in good faith' that carrying on a pregnancy would cause a woman physical or mental harm), abortion is illegal. And right now, that law is increasingly putting British women at risk. 'What we've seen in the past couple of weeks is worrying,' Clarke says. A conversation has been bubbling after new guidance from the National Police Chiefs' Council, quietly published in January, came to light, informing UK police how to search a woman's phone and menstrual tracking apps, along with her home, following a 'suspicious' pregnancy loss. 'These kinds of things are really damaging and really quite terrifying to women who learn about them. 'The shocking thing is, actually, you look at some of the comments on social media, and people are saying that they don't understand why stories are on their feed – they think that it's about America. And you have to say, 'No, this is something that is happening in England and Wales'.' In fact, even in America, a pregnant woman who ends her own pregnancy outside of the law can't be criminalised. Yet in the UK, prosecutions are actually increasing. Despite there only having been a handful of known convictions in the 160 years since the Offences against the Person Act, which criminalises the act of inducing a termination – taking pills, for example – was first introduced in England and Wales, in just the last two years six women have been charged under the act and appeared in court, an unprecedented number. The question is, why? Clarke says that there isn't one answer, but it could partly come down to a trend – that police officers and CPS lawyers are seeing more cases reported and are therefore more hyper-aware. 'And what we see then is quite a lot of overzealous interest in some women, including some women who have not taken any medication, who have not had any role in a premature birth or a stillbirth, but because police have seen it on the news and in reporting, or in the guidance that went out in the last few months, it makes them suspicious of women in a way that they may not have been 10 years ago. As a result, these women are paying the price.' 'The case of Adriana is very much one that law professors would theorise about – what would happen if we have foetal personhood? What would we do if a mother fell ill?' says Sam Yousef, chair of the board of trustees of Reproductive Justice Initiative. 'Now it's actually happened, we've seen the legislation has [had a] chilling effect on medical practitioners who are so worried about the law that they can't do right for the patient, or what's right for the family. 'And I think that's also what we're seeing in the UK in terms of people feeling that they have to report people to the police in any way, shape or form if they're 'worried' about a miscarriage or abortion they've witnessed, or the circumstances surrounding it.' It could also be part of the cultural misogyny seen accompanying political shifts to the right; abortion rights often go hand in hand with other liberal causes, many of which have recently been under threat, adds Yousef. 'At the core of this is bodily autonomy,' he says. 'There's the increased policing and reporting, but something also seems to have changed within the Crown Prosecution Service and the police, where they seem to be more willing and wanting to take up these cases. This is the effect of abortion bans – this is what happens when women are treated like incubators, whether they are alive or dead Rachael Clarke, head of advocacy at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service 'That probably has to do with the narratives that are being pushed around abortion. We know that there's more money being funnelled into the UK for anti-abortion activist groups from the US. We don't know loads about them but we do know that, in some cases, in the largest anti-abortion lobbying groups from the US, these are the groups that are also campaigning against things like trans rights.' Clarke adds that the cases we see in public – that of Bethany Cox, for example, a 22-year-old from Eaglescliffe in Stockton who was found not guilty of child destruction and using misoprostol to procure her own miscarriage in 2020 – are not the full picture. 'It's been six women in court in the last couple of years, but as a sector we've probably had about 100 requests from the police for medical records of women they're suspicious of and they're investigating,' she explains. 'So these women who are appearing in court and the one woman who spent time in prison are really just the tip of the iceberg. Underneath there are huge numbers of women who are being caught up by the police, who might end up being arrested, released on bail, who might have bail conditions put in around not being allowed access to children or their own children – even social services get pulled into it.' Most of the women never make it to court because there isn't enough evidence or it's 'not in the public interest', 'but it doesn't stop the police searching their houses, seizing their phones, keeping them from their kids'. The damage lingers: despite our progress, a stigma still very much exists. And a law that hauls often desperate, vulnerable women into police cells from hospital beds and denies them medical care only does further harm. BPAS have been campaigning to decriminalise abortion since 2012 – and still now the fight is not over. Currently, they are working with Tonia Antoniazzi, a Welsh Labour MP who has an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill which would remove women from the criminal abortion law. It's supported by 50 organisations – including five medical Royal Colleges, violence against women and girls groups, trade unions, abortion providers and more than 90 MPs have signed up to it ahead of the vote to pass it in June (you can use their easy tool to write to your MP in support). 'It's time for abortion to be what it is, which is a healthcare procedure and a healthcare decision, and for full abortion rights and reproductive rights and justice to be finally fulfilled so that people can get the care that they need and they deserve,' says Yousef. It feels hopeful – but there are no guarantees. Adriana's family must continue to endure the terrible fate constructed by laws intended to harm women like her. But her story doesn't exist in a vacuum – she is not an anomaly, far from it. During the last parliament there were several attempts to restrict access to abortion, including an amendment to cut the legal limit from 24 weeks to 22, vocally supported by Reform UK's leader, Nigel Farage. 'Extreme' anti-abortion protestors from the US have already moved into the UK, increasing their spending here and lobbying susceptible MPs. For the sake of women like Adriana, complacency isn't an option.
The Guardian
20-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Fetus of brain dead Georgia woman kept alive due to abortion ban is growing, says family
The fetus of a brain dead Georgia woman who is being kept alive to carry out her pregnancy is continuing to grow, the woman's mother said late Monday, days after the controversial case exploded into the national news and sparked questions about the ethics of using the state's anti-abortion law to keep a woman with no chance of recovery on life support. 'He has his toes, arms, limbs – everything is forming,' the mother, April Newkirk, told the local news station 11Alive. 'We're just hoping he makes it.' The Georgia woman, Adriana Smith, went to a hospital in February with what she thought was an intense headache, Newkirk, told 11 Alive, which first reported the story. At the time, Smith was about eight weeks into her pregnancy. The hospital released Smith after providing her with medication, Newkirk said. The next day, Smith was rushed back to the hospital after she woke up gasping for air. The hospital diagnosed her with blood clots in her brain. Within hours of her first visit, she was declared braindead. Under Georgia law, abortion is banned after about six weeks of pregnancy. That ban also contains provisions that strengthen the concept of 'fetal personhood', a doctrine that holds that embryos and fetuses should be considered people – and, as such, are entitled to full legal rights and protections. Newkirk said doctors told the family the law requires keeping her alive to preserve the pregnancy. 'We didn't have a choice or a say about it,' Newkirk said. 'We want the baby. That's a part of my daughter. But the decision should have been left to us – not the state.' Smith is currently about 22 weeks into her pregnancy. The hospital plans to keep Smith on life support until early August, when doctors will deliver the baby through a caesarean section, 11Alive reported. 'The chances of there being a healthy newborn at the end of this is very, very small,' Steven Ralston, the director of the maternal fetal medicine division at George Washington University, told the Washington Post. 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. The family has named the baby Chance, Newkirk said. '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.' Smith's case has sparked a nationwide debate about medical consent and the potentially sweeping reach of anti-abortion laws. Abortion rights activists have spent years warning about these laws' unforeseen consequences, as instituting fetal personhood can lead to the rights of a pregnant person being pitted against that of the fetus inside them. In the years since Roe v Wade's 2022 overturning, dozens of pregnant women have said that abortion bans led them to be denied abortions even in medical emergencies. The hospital where Smith is currently located has not commented on her case, citing privacy laws. However, it said in a statement that 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'. The office of Georgia's attorney general, Chris Carr, has released a statement declaring that Georgia's six-week law 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. Some anti-abortion advocates, however, have taken the opposite view. Georgia state Sen. Ed Setzler, who sponsored the state's abortion ban, told the Associated Press that 'it is completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child'. He continued: '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 powerful national anti-abortion group, has also backed the decision to keep Smith on life support. '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 was accompanied by a fundraiser for Smith's family. Smith's family has their own fundraiser to help cover costs associated with her care and the possibilities that her son will be born with disabilities.
Daily Mail
19-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Disturbing new development in case of brain-dead Georgia mom being kept on life support until she gives birth
The Georgia Attorney General claimed that the state's abortion ban is not forcing the hospital to keep a brain-dead pregnant woman alive. Adriana Smith, 30, was hospitalized in early February for intense headaches when she was nine weeks pregnant, and doctors found multiple blood clots in her brain, according to her family. Doctors attempted surgery to relieve the pressure, but Smith was left brain-dead after the operation. Her mother, April Newkirk, told WXIA that the hospital said they could not take her off life support because the state law prevents it. Georgia passed the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act in 2019, and Governor Brian Kemp signed it into law, saying medical professionals can't perform an abortion if a heartbeat is detected. However, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr's office told the local news station that Smith's case does not apply. 'There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death. Removing life support is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy,' Carr's spokeswoman Kara Murray said. Supporters of the LIFE Act have also insisted that Smith's case does not fall under the circumstances that are protected by the bill. 'Our reading of the situation is that this particular circumstance was not intended, nor does it apply, with the heartbeat bill,' said Mack Parnell, of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. 'Trying to paint the "heartbeat" bill as doing something that it doesn't is a disservice to our state. 'It was not the intention. We will leave those decisions to the family. And I will be very empathetic to the family whatever circumstance they find themselves in.' However, State Senator Ed Setzler, who introduced the bill, praised the hospital's decision. 'I'm thankful for the hospital recognizing the full value of this small human life that's living inside of this tragically dying young mother; mindful of the agony of this young mother's family,' he told the local news station. The law has 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 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. '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,' she said. Smith's mother told the outlet that she went back home, and her boyfriend then called 911 when she began struggling to breathe. 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. 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 said. '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.'
Al Arabiya
17-05-2025
- Health
- Al Arabiya
Brain-dead pregnant US woman kept alive due to abortion ban: Family
A 30-year-old pregnant woman in the southeastern US state of Georgia has been kept on life support for three months -- despite being declared brain-dead -- due to the state's abortion restrictions, the woman's mother says. April Newkirk said the decision to keep her daughter Adriana Smith alive was made without input from her family. 'This decision should've been left to us,' she told local NBC broadcaster WXIA-TV. Newkirk said Smith, a registered nurse, was suffering serious headaches in February when she was nine weeks pregnant. An initial hospital visit ended with only a prescription for medication. The next morning, when she was taken to the hospital where she worked, doctors found multiple blood clots in her brain, and she was declared brain dead. Georgia law bans all abortion treatments after six weeks of pregnancy -- one of the so-called 'heartbeat' laws, referring to the approximate first detection of a fetal heartbeat. As Smith was nine weeks along, doctors were hesitant to do anything that could contravene the law, according to Newkirk. Smith has been kept on life support ever since, and is now 21 weeks into her pregnancy. 'I'm not saying that we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy, what I'm saying is: we should have had a choice,' Newkirk said. Smith, who has a son, has been kept on a ventilator to bring the fetus to term, though Newkirk said doctors are not sure the pregnancy will be viable or without health complications. 'Chilling effect' Katie Watson, a professor at Northwestern University specializing in medical ethics and reproductive rights, said the abortion law does not apply to a case like Smith's. The 'Georgia abortion statute is completely unrelated to removing a ventilator from a brain-dead person. It has nothing to say about that, even if that person is pregnant at the time of their death,' Watson told AFP on Friday. 'If the family's report of what the hospital told them is accurate, the hospital has made a surprising misinterpretation of Georgia's abortion law,' she added. Watson said it was possible the hospital's actions were out of fear of legal liability, 'which is a chilling effect of these statutes' against abortion. Emory Healthcare, the hospital system where Smith is being treated, did not immediately respond to a request for comment by AFP. The saga provoked a strong reaction by Democrats and abortion rights organizations. 'Everyone deserves the freedom to decide what's best for their families, futures and lives,' Democratic congresswoman Nikema Williams of Georgia said in a statement. Williams accused US President Donald Trump and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, both Republicans, of 'forcing people through unimaginable pain.' 'It is deadly to be Black and pregnant in a state where reproductive care is limited and criminalized,' said Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, an advocacy group focusing on reproductive justice for women of color. Since the US Supreme Court's decision to end federal protection of abortion rights in 2022, states like Georgia have adopted tough anti-abortion laws. Trump, who in his first term appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court, has frequently credited himself on contributing to the overturning of Roe v Wade, which had secured the right to terminate a pregnancy.
The Independent
17-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Case of brain-dead pregnant woman kept on life support raises tricky questions
The case of a pregnant woman who has been on life support in Georgia since she was declared brain dead three months ago has given rise to questions about fetal personhood and abortion laws. Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old nurse, was about two months pregnant on February 19 when she was declared brain dead, according to an online fundraising page started by her mother. Her mother wrote that doctors said Georgia 's strict anti- abortion law requires that she remain on life support until the fetus has developed enough to be delivered. The law was one of a wave of measures enacted in conservative states after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. It restricts abortion once cardiac activity is detected, and gives personhood rights to a fetus. Smith's mother wrote it has left her family without a say in a difficult situation. Smith's due date is still months away, and the family is wondering whether the baby will be born with disabilities or can even survive. Some activists, many of them Black women like Smith, say the case raises issues of racial equity. What does the law say? Emory Healthcare, which runs the hospital, has not explained how doctors decided to keep Smith on life support except to say in a statement they considered 'Georgia's abortion laws and all other applicable laws.' The state adopted a law in 2019 to ban abortion after cardiac activity can be detected, about six weeks into pregnancy, that came into effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned. That law does not explicitly address Smith's situation, but allows abortion to preserve the life or physical health of the pregnant woman. Three other states have similar bans that kick in around the six-week mark and 12 bar abortion at all stages of pregnancy. David S. Cohen, a professor at Drexel University's Thomas R. Kline School of Law in Philadelphia, said the hospital might be most concerned about part of the law that gives fetuses legal rights as 'members of the species Homo sapiens.' Cohen said Emory may therefore consider Smith and the fetus as two patients and that once Smith was on life support, they had a legal obligation to keep the fetus alive, even after she died. 'These are the kind of cases that law professors have been talking about for a long time when they talk about fetal personhood,' he said. Personhood divide within anti-abortion movement Anti-abortion groups are divided over whether they should support personhood provisions, which are on the books in at least 17 states, according to the advocacy group Pregnancy Justice. Some argue that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses should be considered people with the same rights as those already born. This personhood concept seeks to give them rights under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says a state can't 'deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process or law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.' Some saw personhood as politically impractical, especially after personhood amendments to state constitutions were rejected by voters in Colorado, Mississippi and North Dakota between 2008 and 2014. Those who steered away sought laws and restrictions on abortion that stopped short of personhood, although they were often informed by the concept. Personhood proponents argue this lacks moral clarity. Some personhood proponents have been sidelined in national anti-abortion groups; the National Right to Life Committee cut ties with its Georgia Right to Life affiliate in 2014 after the state wing opposed bills that restricted abortion but allowed exceptions for rape and incest. Unequal access to care for Black women The Associated Press has not been able to reach Smith's mother, April Newkirk. But Newkirk told Atlanta TV station WXIA that her daughter went to a hospital complaining of headaches and was given medication and released. Then, her boyfriend awoke to her gasping for air and called 911. Emory University Hospital determined she had blood clots in her brain and she was declared brain dead. It's not clear what Smith said when she went to the hospital or whether the care she was given was standard for her symptoms. But Black women often complain their pain isn't taken seriously, and an Associated Press investigation found that health outcomes for Black women are worse because of circumstances linked to racism and unequal access to care. Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Georgia's abortion law, said: 'Black women must be trusted when it comes to our health care decisions.' '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,' Simpson said, noting that by the time Smith was diagnosed 'it was already too late.' It's unclear whether the clots in Smith's brain were related to her pregnancy. But her situation is undoubtedly alarming for those seeking solutions to disparities in the maternal mortality rate among Black women. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women had a mortality rate of 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023. That's more than three times the rate for white women, and it is higher than the rates for Hispanic and Asian women. What is Smith's current situation? While Smith is on a ventilator and likely other life-support devices, being declared brain dead means she is dead. Some experts refer to 'life support' as 'maintenance measures,' 'organ support' or 'somatic support,' which relates to the body as distinct from the mind. Emory has not made public what is being done to allow Smith's fetus to continue to develop. In another case in Florida, doctors successfully delivered the baby of a 31-year-old woman who was declared brain-dead while 22 weeks pregnant, but not without weeks of sustained monitoring, testing and medical care. The woman's family wanted to keep the fetus, physicians with the University of Florida College of Medicine said in a 2023 paper. On her first day of admission, doctors administered hormones to raise her blood pressure and placed a feeding tube. After she was transferred to an intensive care unit, an obstetric nurse stayed by her bedside continuously to monitor the fetus' heart rate and movements. She was on a ventilator, regularly received steroids and hormones, and needed multiple antibiotics to treat pneumonia. Her medical team encompassed multiple specialties: obstetrics, neonatology, radiology and endocrinology. Doctors performed surgery to remove the fetus at 33 weeks when its heart rate fell, and the baby appeared to be in good health at birth. 'We don't have great science to guide clinical decision making in these cases,' said Dr. Kavita Arora, an obstetrician and gynecologist in North Carolina who raised concerns about the effect of prolonged ventilator use on a fetus. 'There simply aren't a lot of cases like this.' The 2023 paper warned that 'costs should not be underestimated.' While it is unclear how much it will cost to keep Smith on life support until the fetus can be delivered, or who will be responsible for that cost, her mother's GoFundMe page mentions Smith's 7-year-old son and notes that the baby could have significant disabilities as it aims to raise $275,000.
