Inset: Adriana Smith (GoFundMe). Background: Footage captured inside of a hospital (WANF/YouTube).
Georgia’s attorney general says the state’s “heartbeat law” is not forcing a pregnant woman who has been declared brain-dead to stay on life support after reports emerged last week saying she was being kept alive until her fetus can be delivered.
“There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,” said AG Chris Carr’s office in a public statement Friday, according to local NBC affiliate WXIA. “Removing life support is not an action ‘with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy,”” the statement said, quoting the local state law.
The mother of Adriana Smith, 30, says Emory University doctors have told them the pregnant mother is on life support because of the LIFE Act, which they have condemned as “torture.” Supporters of the law have pushed back on the claim in recent days, saying Smith’s case is unique on account of abortion not being involved and her health crisis.
“Our reading of the situation is that this particular circumstance was not intended, nor does it apply, with the heartbeat bill,” said Mack Parnell, of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, in a statement to WXIA.
The conservative advocacy group has been speaking out in support of the legislation and Smith’s medical ordeal.
“Trying to paint the ‘heartbeat’ bill as doing something that it doesn’t is a disservice to our state,” Parnell said. “It was not the intention. We will leave those decisions to the family. And I will be very empathetic to the family whatever circumstance they find themselves in.”
Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, spoke to WXIA last week and said that when her daughter was nearly nine weeks pregnant in February, she began experiencing severe headaches and went to the hospital. Hospital staff sent Smith home with medication — no CT scan, no further observation, Newkirk said.
The next morning, Smith’s boyfriend woke to find her gasping for air and gurgling, and he called 911. When she arrived at the hospital, a CT scan allegedly revealed several blood clots in her brain.
Newkirk told WXIA that if her daughter had received a CT scan or been admitted to the hospital when she first went in, “they would have caught it. It could have been prevented.”
Doctors asked for Newkirk’s permission to perform a procedure to relieve pressure on her brain, and she granted it. “Then they called me back and said they couldn’t do it,” Newkirk told WXIA.
Smith was declared brain-dead, with no hope of recovery. However, because she was almost nine weeks pregnant, Newkirk said the doctors told her Georgia’s so-called “heartbeat law” forbids the medical termination of her pregnancy since a fetal heartbeat was detected, which is required under the law. And because Smith is no longer seen as being at risk because of her lack of brain activity, she is being forced to stay on life support until her fetus is considered viable, possibly until 32 weeks of gestation. Smith is reportedly 21 weeks pregnant as of this writing.
Newkirk has not stated that her family would have ended the pregnancy if given the choice. They feel that the decision should have been theirs regardless and not dictated by legal interpretations.
“I’m not saying we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy,” Newkirk told WXIA. “But I’m saying we should have had a choice. We should have had a choice.”
Georgia Sen. Ed Setzler (R-Acworth), who introduced the LIFE Act, has praised the hospital’s decision to keep Smith on life support, calling it a recognition of the value of life.
“I’m thankful for the hospital recognizing the full value of this small human life that’s living inside of this tragically dying young mother,” Setzler told WXIA on Friday. “Mindful of the agony of this young mother’s family.”
Jamie Frevele contributed to this report
