‘Used as an Incubator’: Brain-dead woman in Georgia delivers premature baby after months on life support

Georgia, US: A 30-year-old pregnant woman, Adriana Smith, was kept on life support despite being declared brain dead at just 9 weeks into her pregnancy. The Georgia resident reportedly suffered from severe headaches in February while being pregnant.

According to the information, she decided to go to the hospital but was only given some medication and sent back home without any proper treatment. The next morning the registered nurse went to work  and upon close examination in the hospital where she worked, the doctors discovered she had blood clots in her brain and proclaimed her as braindead. 

Because of the ‘heartbeat’ law in Georgia which bans all abortion treatments after six weeks of pregnancy, the doctors kept her alive despite her being brain dead. 

She had been on life support ever since February and just on Tuesday, she delivered her premature son named Chance approximately at 4:41 weighing 1 pound and 13 ounces through an emergency C-section. Her son was admitted to the NICU following which she was removed from life support on Tuesday. 

Following the case made headlines, people across the world are arguing that the young woman was used as a ‘medical experiment’ and as an ‘incubator’ to give birth to the child. People across the world have shown their frustration with the Georgian government, saying that this was not their decision to make. 

One of the users also argued, “Adriana Smith did not give birth. She did not deliver a baby. They performed an autopsy on her corpse to remove a baby. A baby that had to be born extremely premature, weighed only 1 pound and 3 ounces, because he could no longer survive in his mother’s decaying body. Her body began to literally rot. It wasn't a c section, it was an autopsy.”

Meanwhile, April Newkirk, mother of Adriana Smith says that the decision of her abortion should have been left to her or her family, stating the law only allows those less than six weeks pregnant to abort and she was 9 weeks pregnant and the doctors feared going against the law. Adding that they would not have terminated the pregnancy but they should have had the option to weigh the two options as a family.

Her case has sparked conversation about abortion and captivated the attention of many across the United States, where access to abortion is strictly limited in some states and completely banned in others, since the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to terminate a pregnancy in June 2022.

Three congresswomen are however fighting for the rights of pregnant women, particularly black women to better protect the ones who are unequally impacted by systemic medical neglect and restrictive anti-abortion laws. 

Ayanna Pressley, Nikema Williams, and Sara Jacobs who have presented congressional resolutions on the issue and are pushing to change the abortion laws that lack formal legal opinions leaving families and doctors in a limbo.