The family of a brain-dead Georgia woman, Adriana Smith, says her fetus continues to develop as doctors keep her on life support, a decision that has ignited a national debate over abortion laws, medical consent, and fetal personhood.
Smith, who was approximately eight weeks pregnant at the time, visited a hospital in February after suffering what she believed was a severe headache. She was given medication and discharged. But the following day, she was rushed back after waking up gasping for air. Doctors discovered blood clots in her brain, and she was declared brain-dead within hours.
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“She has his toes, arms, limbs, everything is forming,” Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, told local news outlet 11Alive. “We’re just hoping he makes it.” Now 22 weeks into the pregnancy, Smith remains on life support, with doctors planning a caesarean section in early August to deliver the baby, who the family has named Chance.
The situation is complicated by Georgia’s strict abortion laws. Passed after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, Georgia’s six-week abortion ban includes fetal personhood language, recognizing embryos and fetuses as having legal rights. According to Newkirk, doctors informed the family that the law required maintaining life support to sustain the pregnancy.
“We didn’t have a choice or a say about it,” she said. “We want the baby. That’s a part of my daughter. But the decision should have been left to us, not the state.” The prognosis for the unborn child is uncertain. Newkirk revealed that fluid has been found in the baby’s brain. “He may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he’s born,” she said.
Steven Ralston, director of maternal fetal medicine at George Washington University, told The Washington Post that “the chances of there being a healthy newborn at the end of this are very, very small.” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office stated that the law does not require doctors to keep brain-dead patients on life support.
“Removing life support is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy,” said spokesperson Kara Murray. However, anti-abortion advocates argue otherwise. State Senator Ed Setzler, who sponsored the law, stated: “It is completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child.”
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Students for Life of America also expressed support, saying, “Her doctors are doing the right thing by treating him as a unique patient,” alongside a fundraiser for the family. Smith’s family has launched its own fundraiser to help cover medical expenses and potential long-term care for baby Chance.
“Right now, the journey is for baby Chance to survive — and whatever condition God allows him to come here in, we’re going to love him just the same,” she said. The family has started a GoFundMe to help with various costs. “Right now, the journey is for baby Chance to survive,” Newkirk said. “Whatever condition God allows him to come here in, we’re going to love him just the same.”
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