Adriana Smith was a Georgia woman who was kept on life support for nearly four months after the hospital declared that removing her from it would violate the state’s abortion laws. On June 28th, she was laid to rest outside of Atlanta. After being declared brain dead back in February, because she was pregnant at the time, the hospital kept her on life support for weeks so that the pregnancy would be carried to term. Her story has garnered national attention for its legal and bioethical implications and has ignited debate about how laws like Georgia’s LIFE Act are to be interpreted and the impact of fetal personhood laws on autonomy beyond abortion policy.
Who Was Adriana Smith?
Adriana Monet Smith was a 30-year-old Black mother from Georgia and nurse at Emory University Hospital. Shewas eight weeks pregnant with her second child when she was taken to the hospital upon experiencing intense headaches. According to her mother, she was given medication and was released without any tests being run. The next day, she was rushed to a different hospital after gasping for air in her sleep, where doctors discovered multiple blood clots in her brain. She was declared brain dead on February 18th, 2025. However, according to Smith’s family, the Emory doctors claimed they could not remove her from life support under Georgia’s law barring abortion after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, typically by the six week mark of a pregnancy, and were “not legally allowed to consider other options.”
On Friday, June 13th, doctors performed an emergency c-section to deliver Smith’s baby, Chance, who currently remains in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), weighing one pound and thirteen ounces. Per Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, “he’s expected to be okay,” but is “fighting” and has fluid in the brain. It is unclear why the emergency c-section was performed, as the c-section was originally set to occur in August. Having been born at 25 weeks gestation, or about six months, Chance is considered to be “extremely preterm,” according to the World Health Organization. The most premature baby to be delivered and survive was born at 22 weeks.
Newkirk has been outspoken on her daughter’s behalf, arguing that the decision whether to keep Smith on life support should’ve been the family’s, rather than the hospital’s or legislature’s. Speaking to a local news station in Georgia, she stated “My grandson may be blind, may not be able to walk, we don’t know if he’ll live once she has him. And I’m not saying that we would have chose to terminate her pregnancy. What I’m saying is we should have had a choice. 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.” To honor what would have been her daughter’s 31st birthday, Newkirk organized a reproductive rights rally with reproductive justice advocacy groups including Sister Song and SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW.
Abortion and Pregnancy in Georgia
Georgia’s HB 481, also known as the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act or Georgia’s “Heartbeat Law,” was signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp in 2019, criminalizing most abortions after fetal cardiac activity can be detected,—usually around 6 weeks into pregnancy—and expanding the definition of a “natural person” to include fetuses. Though the law was considered unconstitutional and thus unenforceable under Roe v. Wade, the statute served as a “trigger law” that took effect following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson in 2022.
This is not the first time the law has garnered national attention– back in September of 2024, a ProPublica article made waves detailing the deaths of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, who both contracted fatal infections from incomplete fetal tissue expulsion. While Miller didn’t visit a doctor, citing fear around Georgia abortion legislation, Thurman did and was denied care for 20 hours with doctors also citing fear of performing a D&C to remove the remaining tissue under the LIFE Act.
As of 2020, Georgia had the highest maternal mortality rate in the United States, disproportionately impacting Black women, with Black women in Georgia being over three times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy when compared to white women.
Public Response
Public officials have responded with varying interpretations of the law and how it should or should not be applied in this case. Georgia’s Attorney General, Chris Carr, a Republican, released a statement claiming “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.’” In contrast, however, State Senator Ed Setzler, the author of the LIFE Act, told the Associated Press that “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.”
As a result of Smith’s case, Democratic Congresswomen Nikema Williams, Ayanna Pressley, and Sara Jacobs have introduced a resolution urging the federal government to “Repeal state laws that ban or criminalize abortion and abortion-related services; Repeal laws that exclude pregnant people from having their advance directives come into effect; Clarify how anti-abortion and fetal personhood laws should be interpreted in medical settings; [and] Reaffirm and guarantee autonomy and dignity to pregnant people over their lives, well-being, and medical needs.” Within the Georgia House of Representatives, Democratic State Rep. Park Cannon introduced a resolution called “Adriana’s Law,” which Cannon claims “would affirm that individuals retain agency over their bodies and medical decisions even under restrictive fetal personhood regimes.” In a letter to AG Carr, State Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes wrote “That any law in Georgia could be interpreted to require a brain-dead woman’s body to be artificially maintained as a fetal incubator is not only medically unsound—it is unsafe.”
Emory University Hospital also released a statement on their decision to keep Smith on life support, stating that “Emory Healthcare uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individual treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia’s abortion laws and all other applicable laws.”
Going Forward
It remains to be seen whether Adriana Smith’s case will push legislators or the courts to clarify or alter fetal personhood laws like the LIFE Act to account for situations like hers. In the meantime, Newkirk is asking people to remember her daughter and her story. “I guess that [sic] I would like people to know is that all women should have a choice about their bodies. And I think I want people to know that [Adriana] was a nurse, an RN. The same field that she worked in is the same people who failed her…She was a ray of light. She loved to travel. She loved her family. She was a good mom. She wanted to advance her education. She loved people.”