A pregnant woman who has been brain-dead since February and kept alive via life support has given birth to a baby boy.
Atlanta nurse Adriana Smith, 31, gave birth on June 13, three months premature via C-section, to a baby who weighs 1 pound 13 ounces and is currently in the neonatal intensive care unit at Emory University Hospital Midtown, according to local reports.
The woman was kept ‘alive’ to comply with the State of Georgia’s abortion law. According to her family, doctors were unable to humanely end her life due to Georgia’s strict anti-abortion legislation.
Though legally dead, Smith remained on life support for months until the birth of her baby, a boy named Chance, on June 13. Smith had been on life support for nearly four months and was taken off life support on 17 June.
“He’s expected to be okay, he’s just fighting. We just want prayers for him. Just keep praying for him. He’s here now.” Smith’s mother April Newkirk told local told local media.
Days earlier, on Sunday, members of Smith’s family and the community gathered in a sombre celebration of Smith’s 31st birthday.
Smith’s case gained widespread attention for highlighting the complexities and ambiguities of Georgia’s stringent anti-abortion policy, which prohibits abortions after cardiac activity in the embryo can be detected, generally around six weeks, except under circumstances where the pregnancy is medically futile, poses a threat to the mother’s life or is the result of rape or incest, in which case it can be aborted up to 20 weeks of gestation, but both of these situations require a police report.
