Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Before we begin. This episode contains content that some listeners may find sensitive. Listener discretion is advice.
[00:00:25] Foreign this is the Excess Pregnancy Post Row podcast and I am mia Brun In February 2025, Adriana Smith went to Northside Hospital in Georgia with severe headaches.
[00:00:46] She was given a prescription and sent home without any additional scans or tests.
[00:00:52] One day after Adriana sought medical help, her boyfriend woke to find her gasping for air and making gargling noises.
[00:01:00] She was rushed to the hospital, where a CT scan revealed she had multiple blood clots in her brain.
[00:01:07] While at the hospital, Adriana was declared brain dead and placed on a ventilator because she was also nine weeks pregnant.
[00:01:17] Due to Georgia's abortion law, particularly the fetal personhood aspect, doctors at Emory University Hospital placed Adriana on life support to allow the fetus to develop.
[00:01:30] According to Adriana's family, they were told that the hospital was not allowed to remove the devices that were keeping her breathing due to a provision in state law that bans abortion after cardiac activity can be detected, which is around six weeks of pregnancy.
[00:01:51] The extreme abortion ban law in Georgia was adopted in 2019 but not enforced until the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
[00:02:03] Georgia's law confers personhood on a fetus. Fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses are considered people with the same rights as those already born.
[00:02:16] Lois Shepard, a bioethicist and law professor at the University of Virginia, said that she does not believe Georgia's law required life support in this case.
[00:02:27] She also noted that whether a state could insist that Smith remain on the breathing or other devices is uncertain since the 2022 ruling in the Dobbs vs Jackson's Women's Health Organization, which overturned all the parts of the Roe ruling, including the finding that fetuses do not have the rights of people, shepard stated before the Dobbs decision a fetus did not have rights and the state's interest in fetal life could not be so strong as to overcome other important rights. But now people are unsure.
[00:03:05] Georgia State Senator Ed Setzler, a Republican who sponsored the 2019 abortion law, stated that he believed it is sometimes acceptable to remove life support from someone who is brain dead, but said the law is, quote, an appropriate check because the mother is pregnant.
[00:03:24] He believes that Emory University Hospital made the correct choice when placing Adriana on life support.
[00:03:32] He is quoted as saying it is completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child.
[00:03:39] I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life. I like that the hospital is acting appropriately.
[00:03:52] Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr's office issued a statement saying that the state's Life act fetal heartbeat law does not require hospitals to keep a brain dead woman on life support and that removing life support is not considered an act to terminate a pregnancy.
[00:04:13] Adriana's mother, April Newkirk has spoken with various news outlets and stated that the doctors told the family they had no other option.
[00:04:23] The family stated that the hospital told them legally she had to be kept on life support to allow the fetus to grow and they were not legally allowed to consider other options.
[00:04:35] Adrianna was expected to remain on life support through at least 32 weeks of gestation when the fetus has a good chance of survival outside of the womb, according to Michelle Goodwin, a professor of constitutional law and global health policy at Georgetown Law, told ABC News the following quote, because the hospital believed that it could not allow this brain dead woman to simply be deceased because the state has a very strict abortion law, they believed that they needed to do all matters possible to keep the fetus alive.
[00:05:14] Adriana's mom April stated, it's torture for me. I come here and I see my daughter breathing, but she's not there.
[00:05:23] This decision should have been left up to the family. I think every woman should have the right to make their own decision and if not, then their partner or their parents.
[00:05:33] Adrianna also had a young son who had been to see her at the hospital but thought his mother was sleeping.
[00:05:41] April stated the family might not have chosen to terminate the pregnancy anyway, but their trauma has been compounded and by the inability to decide for themselves.
[00:05:52] On top of watching her daughter in the hospital, the family was also notified that the fetus was showing signs of potential health issues due to fluid on the brain.
[00:06:03] Now they are left wondering what kind of life this baby will have and they will be the ones raising him. There were concerns of health issues, including a risk of blindness or the inability to walk.
[00:06:18] So the question is, who gets to make the medical decisions?
[00:06:23] Typically, hospitals follow advance directives, which are legal documents that an individual outlines instructions for medical care if they become unable to make decisions by themselves.
[00:06:35] If an individual does not have an advance care directive, then medical decisions are generally left to the next of kin, such as a spouse, adult children or parents.
[00:06:48] No information was provided regarding whether Adriana Smith did in fact have an advance directive or not.
[00:06:58] Arthur Kaplan, a professor of bioethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, believed that the hospital misinterpreted Georgia's abortion law. He stated, there is no ethical justification for making unilateral decisions about what happened to Ms. Smith.
[00:07:16] The family should have been involved to the extent to which they were capable of doing it.
[00:07:22] Kaplan also stated that if Adriana's family felt too overwhelmed to make the decision, the next step should have been getting a judge to appoint an independent guardian who can make the decisions, adding, quote, you don't have the hospital staff do it.
[00:07:41] Dr. Michelle Goodwin, an acclaimed constitutional law scholar, bioethicist and prolific author, said she believes the landscape in the Post Dobbs America means more cases like Smith's are likely to occur and there will be confusion over what treatment to provide.
[00:08:00] Many state abortion laws have created criminal penalties for hospital staff, which can make providers more cautious.
[00:08:10] Each day Adriana remained in the hospital, the bills piled up.
[00:08:15] This brings up the fundamental ethical questions about state mandated medical care. Who should bear its costs?
[00:08:23] Families like the Smiths did not decide to keep her on life support, so why does the financial burden fall to them?
[00:08:31] On June 13, Adrianna received an emergency C section to deliver her baby at just 25 weeks of gestation.
[00:08:40] The baby, a boy, was born prematurely at £1 13 oz.
[00:08:45] The family named him Chance.
[00:08:48] He was in the neonatal intensive care unit.
[00:08:51] April Newkirk, Adrianna's mother, stated that he was expected to be okay.
[00:08:57] She stated that he was fighting and the family asked for prayers.
[00:09:03] As of late August 2025, baby Chance was still in the NICU, but Adrianna's family was hopeful that he would be released mid to late fall 2025.
[00:09:15] Adriana was removed from life support on June 17, 2025, shortly after her 31st birthday.
[00:09:24] For almost five months, Adriana Smith was not seen as a hardworking nurse, a devoted mother, sister, daughter or girlfriend.
[00:09:33] She was dehumanized and forced to continue a pregnancy against her or her family's wishes.
[00:09:41] Adrianna Monet smith was born June 15, 1994 in White Plains, New York and raised in Lithonia, Georgia.
[00:09:51] She was a proud graduate of Arabia Mountain High School and she pursued her passion for healthcare by enrolling in nursing school and earning her license. In 2022.
[00:10:03] She began her nursing career at Northside Hospital before joining Emory University Hospital, where she found her calling in patient care and was in the process of being promoted.
[00:10:16] Adriana was laid to rest on June 28, 2025.
[00:10:21] Her funeral at Fairfield Baptist Church was attended by hundreds of mourners, including family, friends, colleagues and members of the Atlanta Metropolitan Nursing Honor Guard.
[00:10:36] State lawmakers are now calling for Adrianna's law to protect medical rights and pregnancy.
[00:10:44] State Representative Park Cannon presented a Georgia House resolution in her honor, highlighting both Smith's career and the difficult questions her case raised.
[00:10:55] We believe bodily autonomy should be upheld in Georgia by enacting Adrian's Law, cannon said, which would affirm that individuals retain agency over their bodies and medical decisions even under restraint. Restrictive fetal personhood regimes.
[00:11:13] Adriana's family has set up a GoFundMe to help with the medical costs incurred during Adriana's time in the hospital, as well as for the continued care of her baby. Chance we will provide the link for Adriana's GoFundMe page in our show notes.
[00:11:34] Our next episode will focus on Republican Representative Kat Kamak, who co chaired the House Pro Life Caucus and opposes abortion. Kat experienced firsthand how she was impacted by Florida's abortion law when she did not get immediate care when experiencing an ectopic pregnancy.
