Atlanta – A pregnant woman in Georgia was declared for brain dead after a medical emergency, and the doctors kept them on their life preservation for three months so that the baby enables enough time for the birth of the baby in Georgia, say strict anti-abduction law, say family members.
The case is the latest consequence of abortion banks that were introduced in some states since the Supreme Court lifted Roe against Wade three years ago.
Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old mother and nurse, was explained for brain dead in February in February what she is legally dead-her mother, April Newkirk, to Atlanta TV Station Wxia.
Newkirk said her daughter had an intensive headache more than three months ago and went in Atlantas Northside Hospital, where she received medication and was released. The next morning her friend woke up for air and called 911. Emory University Hospital found that she had blood clots in her brain and that she was later declared brain dead.
The Emory University Hospital Midtown can be seen in Atlanta on Thursday, May 15, 2025.
AP Photo/Brynn Anderson
Newkirk said Smith was now 21 weeks pregnant. Removing breathing pipes and other life -saving devices would probably kill the fetus.
Northside did not answer a request for a comment on Thursday. Emory Healthcare said that due to data protection rules, she could not comment on a single case, but published an explanation in which “consensus of clinical experts, medical literature and legal guidelines” are used to support our providers, since they are given individual treatment recommendations based on compliance with Georgia's laws of Georgia and all other applicable laws and the abortion laws. “
Georgia's abortion ban
According to Smith's family, emory doctors told them that they are not allowed to stop or remove the devices that keep their breathing because the abortion of the state can be demonstrated according to cardiac activity – generally about six weeks after pregnancy.
The law was adopted in 2019, but only after Roe v. Wade enforced in 2022, which opened the door to the state abortion bans. Georgia's ban includes an exception if an abortion is necessary to maintain the life of women.
Smith's family, including her five -year -old son, still visits her in the hospital.
Newkirk said the doctors told the family that the fetus had liquid in the brain and that they were getting around his health.
“She is pregnant with my grandson. But he may be blind, cannot walk, cannot survive if he was born,” said Newkirk. She did not comment on whether the family wants Smith to be removed from life maintenance.
Who has the right to make these decisions?
Monica Simpson, Executive Director of Sistersong, the senior plaintiff in a lawsuit that the abortion law in Georgia questioned, said the situation was problematic.
“Your family deserves the right to have a decision -making authority on her medical decisions,” said Simpson in an explanation. “Instead, they have over 90 days of retaumation, expensive medical costs and cruelty, unable to not be able to be able to remedy and move towards healing.”
Lois Shepherd, a bioethicist and legal professor at the University of Virginia, said she does not believe that the law of Georgia requires life preservation in this case.
But she said whether a state could insist that Smith remains on breathing and other devices are uncertain, since the decision of 2022 in Dobbs against Jackson Women's Health Organization, the ROE, including the fetuses, does not have people.
“Pre-Dobbs, a fetus had no rights,” said Shepherd. “And the state's interest in fetal life could not be so strong that other important rights are overcome, but now we don't know.”
What is the forecast of the fetus?
Brain death during pregnancy is rare. There are even less common cases in which doctors want to extend pregnancy after a woman has been declared brain dead.
“It is obviously not only ethically, but also medically a very complex situation,” said Dr. Vincenzo Berghella, director of maternal maternal medical medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
A review of 2021 that Berghella co -authorized, which held medical literature back with decades in which doctors declared a brainotic woman and wanted to extend her pregnancy. It found 35.
Of these, 27 led to a live birth, whereby the majority either immediately adopted healthy or with normal follow-up tests. Berghella also warned that the case of Georgia was much more difficult because the pregnancy was less far than the woman was declared dead. In the 35 cases he examined, the doctors were only able to extend the pregnancy on average for seven weeks before the complications could intervene.
“It is difficult to keep the mother out of an infection from heart failure,” he said.
Berghella also found a case from Germany, which led to a live birth when the woman was declared brain in nine weeks of pregnancy.
A headlight for the abortion law in Georgia
Georgia's law gives a fetus the personality. Those who prefer the personality say, fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses should be seen as people with the same rights as those already born.
The Senator of Georgia State, Ed Settler, a Republican who sponsored the 2019 law, said he supported emory interpretation.
“I think it is completely appropriate that the hospital does everything it can to save the child's life,” said Setezler. “I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it underlines the value of innocent human life. I think the hospital acts appropriate.”
Setzler said he believes that it was sometimes acceptable to eliminate the life support of someone who is brain dead, but that the law is “an appropriate check” because the mother is pregnant. He said Smith's relatives had “good decisions”, including the child or offering adoption.
Georgia's abortion ban was already in the spotlight.
Last year Prublica reported that two women had died in Georgia after they had not received proper medical treatment for complications by taking abortion pills. The stories of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller joined the presidential breed, with the democrat Kamala Harris said that the deaths were the result of the abortion ban that came into force in Georgia and elsewhere.
Abortion bans in other countries
The situation reflects a case more than a decade ago in Texas when a brain -fat woman was kept on maintenance measures for about two months because she was pregnant. A judge finally decided that the hospital, which she kept alive against her family's wishes, failed to have state law, and life support was eliminated.
Twelve states are bans in all stages of pregnancy with limited exceptions. Georgia is one of four with a ban that is in or in about six weeks in pregnancy – often before women realize that they are pregnant.
Last year, the Supreme Court of Texas unanimously decided against a group of women who questioned the state's ban on abortion, and said the exceptions were so closely interpreted that they were denied the access of abortions when they dealt with severe pregnancy complications. This year the Senate has passed a bill to clarify when abortions are permitted.
South Dakota produced a video to inform the doctors about when exceptions should apply. Abortion rights groups have blown up.
The Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments in December as to whether the Federal Law, according to which the hospitals should apply to abortion in emergency situations, should apply. A judgment will be expected in the coming months.
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Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The journalists from Associated Press, Kate Brumback, Sudhin Thanawala, Sharon Johnson and Charlotte Kramon, contributed.
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