Atlanta, Ga. (Atlanta News first) – months after she was declared dead during pregnancy for brain, a Georgia woman freed her baby and, according to her family, was taken from life support.
April Newkirk, Adriana Smith's mother, said her grandson was born on Friday.
Newkirk called him chance: “Because I feel like I have a second chance in life, do you know?” She asks for prayers for her family while continuing to endure Smith's loss.
“It is very heartbreaking and you try to be strong, but it's difficult,” she said. “It is very difficult.”
Previous reporting: Family pregnant woman says that she is kept on life support to comply with the abortion ban of Georgia
In February, Smith, a nurse at the Emory University Hospital, went to two hospitals that complain about headaches, shared her family in an online donation campaign. After her loved ones, she received medication but not tested.
Days later Smith was no longer reacted and taken to the hospital, where doctors found clots in her brain. It was declared dead for brain on February 19.
Her family said Smith, who was about eight weeks pregnant at the time, was kept on life conservation to meet Georgia's living infants Fairness and Equality (Life) Act after six weeks – one of the most restrictive bans in the country.
“Every woman should have a say in her body. You should,” said Newkirk. “It's just not right.”
Previous reporting: pregnant woman is kept alive under the state abortion law 31
In an explanation, the Midtown emory said that it corresponds to the Abortion Act in Georgia and uses “Consensus of clinical experts, medical literature and legal instructions to support our providers in providing individual treatment recommendations.”
A spokesman for the Attorney General of Georgia, Chris Carr, said that Smith's situation does not apply according to the Life Act.
“Our prayers go to Adriana Smith's family in this difficult time,” said the spokesman. “There is nothing in the Life Act in which doctors have to keep a woman after the death of the brain.
Smith's situation has triggered a national conversation about the access of abortions and the physical autonomy of women.
Danielle Rodriguez, the coordinator of the Reproductive Rights Group Sistersong, Atlanta News first said that she believes that similar incidents will occur when the abortion ban is canceled.
“This fight is not only local, but global,” she added. “Families that are increasing around the world mourn. People demand the right to hear with dignity, to be heard, to make decisions for themselves and their loved ones.”
Smith was 31 years old in the hospital on Sunday. She leaves a 7-year-old son.
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