Medical staff at Atlanta’s Northside Hospital didn’t think much of it when Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old Black woman, came in complaining of severe headaches in early February, giving her some medication and sending her home without running any tests.
Some hours later, Adriana’s boyfriend woke up to the sound of her struggling to breathe. Adriana was taken to a different hospital, Emory Decatur, and then transferred to Emory University Hospital, where she worked as a nurse. There, she received a CT scan, which revealed multiple blood clots in her brain. She was declared brain-dead on February 19.
And yet, on Friday, June 13, doctors performed an emergency caesarean section on Adriana, whom they kept on life support for months in order to avoid running afoul of Georgia’s abortion ban, which prohibits abortions after the detection of fetal cardiac activity—as early as six weeks’ gestation. Adriana was almost nine weeks pregnant when she was declared brain-dead. Only after she was legally dead did doctors do everything in their power to keep her body alive. Adriana’s mom, April Newkirk, described the situation as “torture.” But doctors told her there was no other legal option.
If any organ other than the uterus were at issue, doctors could not legally disregard the will of a brain-dead person’s family. Under Georgia law, a pregnant person is hardly a person at all.
Photo of Adriana Smith posted by April Newkirk on GoFundMe
Georgia lawmakers enacted the state’s abortion ban, called the “LIFE Act,” in 2019, but at the time, a federal district court prevented the ban from taking effect. In his July 2020 opinion, Judge Steve Jones wrote that the law “directly conflicts with binding Supreme Court precedent” and “infringes upon a woman’s constitutional right to obtain an abortion prior to viability.”
Two years later, though, the Supreme Court overturned that precedent, allowing Georgia’s law to take effect. The conservative supermajority declared in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that the constitutional right to abortion does not exist. “Our decision returns the issue of abortion to those legislative bodies,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito. Because of Dobbs, Adriana’s mother spent more than 100 days watching her child breathing by ventilator. Adriana’s 7-year-old son was led to believe his mother had just been sleeping. Adults knew she would never actually wake up.
Some Republicans insist that what happened to Adriana is not their fault. Georgia’s Attorney General’s Office released a statement in May declaring that “there is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death.” The bill’s sponsor begs to differ. “I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life,” said state senator Ed Setzler. “I think the hospital is acting appropriately.”
Medical professionals are left without clear directions. Emory Healthcare released a statement in May saying it “uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance” in order to make “treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia’s abortion laws and all other applicable laws.” Dobbs created confusion between doctors’ obligations to the law and to their patients, and pregnant people and their families are paying the price.
Adriana’s mom told local reporters that her daughter was removed from life support on Tuesday; having successfully forced Adriana into labor, Georgia finally permitted her body to rest. Adriana leaves behind her mom, her 7-year-old son, and the newborn, a boy named Chance who weighs just under two pounds and is currently in the neonatal intensive care unit. Adriana’s mother is now raising funds to pay for Adriana’s life support bills and Chance’s extensive medical needs. Although she sees Chance as a part of her daughter, the denial of any choice in the matter has compounded her trauma. “The decision should have been left to us – not the state,” she said.
Adriana was a mom, a daughter, a nurse, and above all, a person. The Supreme Court empowered Georgia to treat her like an incubator instead.
