The Case of Adriana Smith and the Ambiguity of Georgia’s Abortion Laws

Understanding Adriana Smith’s Case and Its Broader Legal Implications

In February, 30-year-old mother and nurse Adriana Smith went to Northside Hospital complaining of severe headaches. Despite her symptoms, no diagnostic tests were performed, and she was sent home with medication. The next morning, Smith was rushed to Emory University Hospital, where she was declared brain-dead due to untreatable blood clots. At the time, she was nine weeks pregnant.

What followed reveals a troubling intersection of medicine, law, and politics in Georgia. The hospital refuses to remove Smith from life support, citing Georgia’s “heartbeat bill,” which outlaws abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected (typically around weeks gestation) and grants legal personhood to the fetus.

Since Smith’s case does not fall under the law’s narrow exceptions pictured above, its ambiguousness has left medical professionals fearful of criminal charges should they remove her from life support.

Emory has chosen to keep Smith on life support to sustain her pregnancy until the fetus reaches at least 32 weeks. Now, at 23 weeks, her family has no say in her care and is forced to watch her lie unresponsive, kept alive by machines, unable to begin grieving.

In a contradicting twist, Georgia’s Attorney General Chris Carr has since clarified that removing life support after brain death does not legally constitute an abortion. Thus, Emory’s choice is voluntary based on their interpretation, not a legal obligation.

A Dangerous Precedent for Women

Adriana Smith’s case highlights the grim consequences of fetal personhood laws, the idea that legal and constitutional protections begin at conception, pitting the rights of a fetus directly against the women carrying them.

Smith is not the only victim of the anti-abortionist crusade on the rights and autonomy of women. In Texas, Marlise Muñoz, a 33-year-old woman declared brain-dead at 14 weeks pregnant, was kept on life support against her family's wishes until her husband sued the hospital and won, further showing the reality of anti-abortion sentiments.

In both cases and those that will inevitably follow, women are being reduced to incubators, their lives treated as secondary.

There’s something deeply wrong about a family being forced to wait beside a hospital bed, not out of hope but out of obligation to a law they never asked for or agreed with. Adriana Smith was declared brain-dead yet denied peace because a system built by extremist politicians decided her body was no longer her own.

This is what we’re fighting against.

When extremists control our legislature, they pass laws that strip away dignity, override families, and reduce pregnant women to state property, all while calling it “values.” But this isn’t just about Adriana Smith. It’s about the countless Georgians facing impossible choices and the continuous policing of women’s bodies.

The 2030 Project and our partners exist to shift that power. We’re actively working to build a Georgia where compassion shapes policy, dignity is non-negotiable, and every person’s humanity is protected, because what happened to Adriana Smith should never happen again.