A 31-year-old American nurse, Adriana Smith, who was declared brain-dead early in her pregnancy, has delivered a baby boy via caesarean section, four months after being placed on life support in compliance with abortion laws in the U.S. state of Georgia.
Smith, who was reportedly around nine weeks pregnant at the time of her medical emergency, was diagnosed as brain-dead following a sudden health crisis.
Despite her condition, doctors maintained her body on mechanical life support at a Georgia hospital to allow the pregnancy to progress.
Smith family’s efforts to withdraw care were denied due to Georgia’s abortion law, which prohibits terminating a pregnancy once cardiac activity is detected, typically around six weeks.
As a result, her body remained biologically functioning under intensive medical supervision for over 100 days.
Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, disclosed in an interview with reporters that her daughter’s baby, named Chance, was born prematurely last week at Emory University Hospital through an emergency caesarean section.
According to Newkirk, the baby who weighs 1lb 13oz (08kg), is being kept in the neonatal intensive care unit.
“He’s expected to be OK,” she told the outlet, an affiliate of NBC News. “He’s just fighting. We just want prayers for him.”
Following the delivery, Smith’s family has begun funeral arrangements as the 31-year-old nurse, would be taken off life support on Tuesday.
“It’s hard to process,” she said. “I’m her mother. I shouldn’t be burying my daughter. My daughter should be burying me.”
Under Georgia’s 2019 “heartbeat law,” abortion is banned once a fetal heartbeat is detected — typically around six weeks, except in limited circumstances such as medical emergencies.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has noted that the law does not explicitly require life support for brain-dead pregnant women, describing such cases as legally unclear.
Lawmakers and advocacy groups remain divided, with some anti-abortion leaders defending the hospital’s decision to treat the fetus as a separate patient, citing the need to protect innocent life.
Others, including reproductive rights advocates, argue that personhood laws may unintentionally remove critical medical decision-making from families during traumatic situations, a view shared by Smith’s mother.
