WASHINGTON: A brain-dead pregnant woman who was kept alive in the southern US state of Georgia due to local abortion restrictions has given birth, officials said — with the mother then removed from life support.
Adriana Smith had captivated attention across a country where access to abortion has changed radically since the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to terminate a pregnancy in June 2022.
“On Friday, June 13, 2025, her infant son, named Chance, was born prematurely at approximately 4:41 am via emergency Cesarean section,” three Democratic congresswomen said in a statement.
“Chance weighs about 1 pound, 13 ounces and is currently in the NICU,” the statement said, adding that Smith was removed from life support on Tuesday.
Smith, a registered nurse, was suffering serious headaches in February when she was nine weeks pregnant. An initial hospital visit ended with only a prescription for medication.
The next morning, when the then 30-year-old was taken to the hospital where she worked, doctors found multiple blood clots in her brain, and she was declared brain dead.
Georgia law bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy — one of the country’s so-called ‘heartbeat’ laws, referring to the approximate first detection of a fetal heartbeat.
As Smith was nine weeks along, doctors were hesitant to do anything that could contravene the law, according to her mother, April Newkirk.
“This decision should’ve been left to us,” she told local NBC broadcaster WXIA-TV in mid-May.
“I’m not saying that we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy, what I’m saying is: we should have had a choice,” Newkirk said.
In June 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 case that established federal protections for abortion access.
Since then, more than 20 out of 50 states, including Georgia, have imposed strict limits on abortions, or even outright bans.
The three congresswomen — Nikema Williams, Ayanna Pressley, and Sara Jacobs — are pushing for better protections of the rights of pregnant women, particularly Black women.
“The lack of a formal legal opinion or prosecutorial guidance leaves families and doctors in limbo,” said the lawmakers, who have presented a congressional resolution on the issue.
