A brain-dead woman in the United States gave birth to a baby boy via Cesarean section. Her body was kept on a ventilator for months, against the will of her family. According to the hospital, this was necessary because of the abortion laws in the state of Georgia.
The doctors at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta hoped to keep Adriana Smith on the ventilator until the 32nd week of pregnancy. But the baby was born after just 25 weeks via an emergency Cesarean section. It is still unknown why that was necessary. The 31-year-old Smith was taken off the ventilator on Tuesday and died.
The boy, who has been named Chance, is currently being held in the neonatal intensive care unit. He weighs just over 800 grams, but is likely to make it. “He’s going to be okay,” Smith’s mother told local television station 11 Alive. “He’s fighting. We just want prayers.”
Smith was declared brain dead on February 19 after blood clots formed in her brain. She was about nine weeks pregnant at the time. Her family wanted to take her off the ventilator, but doctors at the hospital said they couldn’t because of Georgia’s abortion laws.
The LIFE Act has been in effect in the American state since 2019. According to this law, it is not allowed to perform an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The LIFE Act was declared unconstitutional in 2020, but that expired after the US Supreme Court abolished the national right to abortion in 2022.
According to the hospital, there is no medical emergency
There are two exceptions to the LIFE Act: in cases of rape or incest, or in cases of medical emergency. When Smith was declared brain dead, the hospital said there was no longer a medical emergency. Therefore, the hospital said it was legally obliged to keep Smith on the ventilator.
The public prosecutor of Georgia announced in May that the LIFE Act does not prescribe that Smith had to be kept on the ventilator. “Removing the ventilator is not an act with the aim of terminating a pregnancy.”