A woman in Georgia who was declared brain-dead in February has given birth to a premature baby after being kept on life support for nearly four months due to the state’s strict abortion laws.
On June 13, Adriana Smith delivered a baby boy via emergency C-section. He was born at 4:41 a.m., weighing just 1 pound and 13 ounces.
The baby, named Chance, is now in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Highlights
- Adriana Smith, a brain-dead pregnant woman in Georgia, was kept on life support for nearly four months due to the state's strict six-week abortion ban.
- She gave birth to a premature baby boy, Chance, weighing just 1 pound 13 ounces, via emergency C-section on June 13.
- The case sparked national outrage, highlighting concerns over women’s autonomy and the impact of anti-abortion laws.
Adriana Smith was kept on life support despite being declared brain-dead and gave birth to a premature baby
Image credits: Adriana Smith/ Facebook
“He’s expected to be OK,” Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, told local station 11Alive. “He’s just fighting. We just want prayers for him. Just keep praying for him. He's here now.”
Smith, a 30-year-old nurse from Atlanta, was about 10 weeks pregnant when she was declared brain-dead on February 19.
Due to Georgia’s 6-week abortion ban, doctors said they were legally required to keep her on life support to allow her pregnancy to continue.
The case sparked national outrage and renewed scrutiny of Georgia’s abortion restrictions, with advocacy groups and campaigners calling for changes to policies that delay end-of-life decisions in such cases.
Campaigners described the situation as a “violation of autonomy” and said women should not be solely seen as birth-givers.
Smith’s family said that they are now preparing to say goodbye to Adriana. She was scheduled to be taken off life support on June 17.
“It's kind of hard, you know. It's hard to process,” Newkirk said. “I'm her mother, I shouldn't be burying my daughter. My daughter should be burying me.”
They celebrated Smith’s 31st birthday over the weekend.
Newkirk previously told the outlet that keeping Smith alive despite her being brain-dead was “torture.”
“She’s been breathing through machines for more than 90 days,” she said at the time.
“It’s torture for me. I see my daughter breathing, but she’s not there. And her son — I bring him to see her,” she had told 11Alive.
Her son believed his mother was “just sleeping.”
Image credits: 11Alive
In early February, Smith had begun suffering from severe headaches. She went to the hospital, where she was given medication but no brain scan.
She returned home, but the next day, her partner noticed something was wrong. Smith was gasping for air in her sleep.
She was rushed back to the hospital, where a CT scan revealed blood clots throughout her brain. Doctors told the family they needed to do a procedure, but it was too late.
Smith was declared brain-dead shortly after.
“They gave her some medication, but they didn’t do any tests. Didn’t do any CT scan,” Newkirk told 11Alive. “If they did, they would have caught it.”
Smith, who was nine weeks pregnant at the time, could not be removed from life support due to Georgia’s abortion law.
Image credits: 11Alive
The law bans most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected at around six weeks, unless the pregnancy is a medical emergency or the fetus has a fatal condition.
Smith’s situation was a gray area.
Doctors told her family that because she was already brain-dead, she was no longer considered in a life-threatening situation, so they were legally required to continue life support to keep the fetus alive until it could survive outside the womb.
Newkirk said the doctors told them that they were not legally allowed to consider other options.
“We didn’t have a choice or a say about it,” Newkirk said, before Chance’s birth.
“We want the baby. That’s a part of my daughter. But the decision should have been left to us – not the state.”
She said every woman should have the right to make their own decisions. If they are not in a position to, the decision should be made by their partner or parents.
Adriana's mother said the decision to keep her baby should have been the family's, not the state's
Image credits: Megan Varner/Getty Images
“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 11Alive.
“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.”
Advocates have spoken out strongly, highlighting that women are more than just their reproductive roles.
Congresswoman Sara Jacobs said, “Women are worth more than their ability to get pregnant and give birth – we are human beings who should be trusted to make our own health care decisions.”
She added that this case “needs to be the watershed moment to end anti-abortion and fetal personhood laws and guarantee the rights and dignity of everyone to make the best health care decisions for themselves and their families.”
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, co-chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus, echoed this sentiment.
“These laws stripped Adriana of her dignity and denied her family the right to make deeply personal medical decisions,” she said.
“I hope their experiences compel Congress and the states to finally end cruel abortion bans, end fetal personhood laws, and confront the Black maternal morbidity crisis once and for all.”
Image credits: Ying Tang/Getty Images
Legal experts have also weighed in on the complexities created by recent changes in abortion laws.
Lois Shepherd, a bioethicist and law professor at the University of Virginia, said she does not believe life support was legally required in this case.
“Pre-Dobbs, a fetus didn’t have any rights. And the state’s interest in fetal life could not be so strong as to overcome other important rights, but now we don’t know,” she told AP.
“[The hospital] 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,” Emory said in a statement.
“Our top priorities continue to be the safety and wellbeing of the patients we serve.”
The hospital has declined to comment on Smith’s case, citing privacy rules.
Image credits: John E. Davidson/Getty Images
The office of Georgia’s attorney general, Chris Carr, released a statement that said Georgia’s 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.
“These institutions (hospitals) are very risk averse,” State Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes told The Atlantic, “and they fear prosecution for running afoul of unclear anti-abortion laws.”
Georgia State Senator Edward Setzler praised Emory while speaking to AP last month, “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.”
Abortion bans have been introduced in some states since the US Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling that instated national abortion rights.
Twelve states have now enforced bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy.
Florida, Iowa, Texas and South Carolina are among other states that have similar six-week bans like Georgia.