Of Georgia, Where Death Offers No Escape from Misogyny

A woman was nine weeks pregnant when she died. A hospital is enforcing her pregnancy by keeping her on life support.

Adriana Smith, a thirty-year-old woman, was declared brain dead in February. She had been suffering from intense headaches and went to Atlanta’s Northside Hospital, where she was sent home with medication. The next morning, she was gasping for air: her boyfriend called 911. But it was too late: Emory University hospital found blood clots in her brain. It was impossible to save her.

Despite being declared brain dead—and hence legally dead—Smith is still on life support. That is because, at the time of her death, she was nine weeks pregnant. Without consulting her family or her boyfriend, the hospital has kept her on life support for the last three months. She will remain in that condition for many months more, until the fetus is considered viable ex-utero (at thirty-two weeks, most likely).

Meanwhile, fluid is accumulating in the fetus’s brain, and the baby may be born with serious disabilities. Or he may be stillborn, the hospital told Smith’s mother, April Newkirk. “He may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he’s born,” Newkirk told reporters. But because of Georgia’s strict anti-abortion laws, where abortion is banned after cardiac activity can be detected in the fetus, the hospital say they have no choice in the matter: they cannot remove the apparatus that is keeping Smith breathing.

Many people in my circles have rightly objected to these events as deeply disturbing. But there are prevalent misconceptions about what the problem is here, exactly.