A Georgia family is speaking out after their daughter, Adriana Smith—a 30-year-old nurse and mother—was declared brain dead in February but has remained on life support for over three months due to her pregnancy.
Severe Headaches Before Collapse
Relatives say that physicians at Emory University Hospital informed them that Georgia’s strict abortion legislation, which prohibits termination once fetal cardiac activity is detected (generally around six weeks), barred them from turning off life-sustaining machines, despite Smith being legally deceased.
“She’s carrying my grandson,” her mother, April Newkirk, told local NBC affiliate WXIA. “But we’ve been warned he may be born blind, unable to walk, or might not even make it.”
Newkirk explained that her daughter initially visited Northside Hospital in February with excruciating headaches. She was discharged, but the next day, her partner discovered her struggling to breathe. At Emory, scans revealed brain clots, and she was declared brain dead. Smith was approximately eight weeks pregnant at the time.
Now 21 weeks along—still about three months from the expected due date—Smith has been reliant on machines for over 90 days, her mother says.
Doctors told the family that removing ventilators or other support systems would likely end the fetus’s life, an action that may be legally classified as an abortion under Georgia law.
“It’s unbearable,” Newkirk shared with WXIA. “Her body is breathing, but she’s gone.”
“I believe every woman should be allowed to make that choice herself,” she added. “And if she can’t, then that right should go to her partner or family.”
Life Support Must Stay On, Hospital Says
WXIA reports that the medical team’s current aim is to keep Smith on life support until the fetus reaches a viable stage—around 32 weeks—when survival outside the womb becomes more likely.
Monica Simpson, executive director of the reproductive justice group SisterSong and a lead plaintiff in an ongoing challenge to Georgia’s abortion restrictions, said the Smith family should have been able to make decisions about Adriana’s medical care.
“Instead, they’ve been forced through over three months of trauma, mounting medical bills, and the agony of being unable to grieve or move forward,” Simpson said.
Newkirk believes the tragedy might have been avoided. “They gave her some meds but did no scans. No CT, nothing,” she told 11Alive. “If they’d kept her overnight or done proper testing, this might not have happened.”
Legal experts note that Georgia law does not specifically mandate life support for brain-dead pregnant individuals.
“Turning off mechanical ventilation wouldn’t legally qualify as an abortion,” said Thaddeus Pope, a legal scholar and bioethicist. “There’s no legal obligation to continue treatment in this case.”
Unclear Legal Territory Post-Roe
Lois Shepherd, a bioethics professor at the University of Virginia, added that the legal landscape has become murky since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. “Before Dobbs, a fetus didn’t have legal personhood… Now, the boundaries are unclear.”
Even with concerns over the fetus’s health—Newkirk said doctors have identified fluid on the brain—Georgia law treats fetuses as legal persons under its 2019 “heartbeat” law, which went into effect following the fall of Roe, as reported by the Associated Press.
State Senator Ed Setzler, who sponsored the law, defended the hospital’s course of action: “It’s entirely reasonable for the hospital to do what it can to protect the life of this child… They’re doing what’s right.”
Setzler also pointed out that the family has options, such as placing the baby for adoption if he survives. Meanwhile, Smith’s five-year-old son continues to visit her in the hospital, unaware that his mother’s life is being prolonged by legal and ethical debate.