What The Hell America!

Declared brain-dead in February, Adriana Smith remains on life support in Georgia against her family’s wishes—revealing the chilling consequences of abortion bans that override bodily autonomy, even in death.

Three months ago, 30-year-old Adriana Smith was declared brain-dead. But a hospital in Georgia is keeping her “alive” on life support, against her family’s wishes, because of the state’s strict abortion ban.

Smith, a registered nurse in metro Atlanta, was nine weeks pregnant in early February when she started suffering from intense headaches. Smith initially sought treatment at Northside Hospital but was released that same day after being given medication. According to Adriana Smith’s mother April Newkirk, “They didn’t do any tests. No CT scan. If they had done that or kept her overnight, they would have caught it. It could have been prevented.”

The next morning, Smith’s boyfriend found her unresponsive and gasping for air. Smith was taken to Emory Decatur, then transferred to Emory University Hospital, where she worked. Doctors found multiple blood clots in her brain and determined Smith to be brain-dead, the legal and medical standard for death in the United States. But because she was pregnant, Georgia’s antiabortion laws have created a legal gray area: Emory staff say they are legally required to keep her breathing until the fetus reaches viability.

Last week, Smith was moved again, this time to Emory Midtown, which doctors told the family is better equipped for obstetric care. 

In what universe does a hospital in Georgia … believe that they can take ownership of Adriana Smith’s body?

Michele Goodwin, “Fifteen Minutes of Feminism: Dead, Pregnant and Imprisoned in Georgia—The Adriana Smith Case“

Abortion is currently illegal in Georgia after six weeks. And even though ending Smith’s life support would not be an abortion, hospital staff say they plan to keep Smith’s dead body on life-support machines until the fetus reaches a gestational age when it can survive outside the womb.

When she died, Adriana Smith was already a mother to one young son. Doctors told Newkirk and her boyfriend that, legally, they aren’t allowed to consider other options while Smith is technically pregnant, even though her family wishes she could be allowed to die in peace.

“She’s been breathing through machines for more than 90 days,” Smith’s mother Newkirk said. “It’s torture for me. I see my daughter breathing, but she’s not there. And her son—I bring him to see her.”

Meanwhile, the fetus is not healthy. Doctors told Smith’s family that the baby has fluid on his brain and might not be able to see, walk or survive once he’s born. “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,” said Newkirk. Smith’s family is already facing mounting medical bills as the hospital keeps her body on life support for weeks and weeks.

In an emergency episode of Ms.’ On the Issues With Michele Goodwin: 15 Minutes of Feminism podcast on Friday, host Michele Goodwin said the state of Georgia is treating Smith’s body as an “incubator,” which brings up 13th Amendment questions.

“One can’t help but think about a throughline from that period of time where Black women were forced into involuntary reproductive servitude for the benefit of other people and not for them,” said Goodwin. “Certainly, Adriana will experience … no benefit from what her body has been put through and what the state hopes to accomplish.”

Goodwin also pointed out the similarities between Smith’s case and that of Marlise Muñoz, who died in 2014, but the state of Texas forcibly kept her on a ventilator because she was pregnant, for weeks while her body decomposed, despite the wishes of her parents and husband.

These cases, Goodwin argued, represent “disparate treatment at the end of life involving a person who happens to be pregnant.” If a man died at one of these hospitals, it’s hard to imagine that the hospital would force his body to stay on life support against his family’s wishes, she mused.

Adriana Smith should be here with her 5-year-old son. Her severe headaches were dismissed and at 9 weeks pregnant she was declared brain dead, the result of blood clots. … Emory hospital says the Georgia abortion ban requires she stay on life support until delivery, though it has been nearly 3 months. Horrifying. Devastating. Unacceptable.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.)

This harrowing case is the latest result of Georgia’s strict abortion ban, which led to the deaths of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller in 2023. Neither women were allowed a life-saving abortion, despite going through a medical emergency. Many other women, including Josseli Barnica, Porsha Ngumezi and 18-year-old Neveah Crain in Texas, have died as a result of other state’s draconian abortion bans.

Georgia state legislators have defended the hospital’s actions to keep Smith’s body on life support. State Sen. Ed Setzler (R-Ga.)—who sponsored Georgia’s six-week abortion ban in 2019—told PBS, “I think 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.”

Other lawmakers and reproductive rights advocates are sounding alarms about the tragic case.

“Adriana’s story is gut-wrenching,” said Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.). “It’s also a painful reminder of the consequences when politicians refuse to trust us to make our own medical decisions.” 

Monica Simpson, executive director of reproductive justice organization SisterSong, said “[Smith’s] 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.” SisterSong is the lead plaintiff in the current lawsuit SisterSong v. State of Georgia challenging Georgia’s six-week abortion ban.

“Black women must be trusted when it comes to our healthcare decisions,” Simpson said in her statement. “After the devastating and preventable deaths of multiple Black women, the message still rings clear: our lives are on the line, and our human right to bodily autonomy has been violated.”

“I think every woman should have the right to make their own decision,” Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, said. “And if not, then their partner or their parents.”

Listen to Ms.’ emergency episode of On the Issues With Michele Goodwin: “Dead, Pregnant and Imprisoned in Georgia—The Adriana Smith Case.”