


The family of a brain-dead woman in Georgia who has been kept on life support for four months because she was pregnant is preparing their goodbyes after she delivered a baby boy.
Adriana Smith’s family has wanted the option to pull her life support for months, but said the hospital where the 31-year-old nurse was being treated wouldn’t do so due to a Georgia law restricting abortions. State officials rebuffed accusations that the LIFE Act was responsible for keeping Smith alive against her family’s wishes, arguing that “removing life support is not an action ‘with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.’”
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The monthslong debate is over now, however, after Smith, roughly six months pregnant, gave birth to the boy, named Chance, prematurely early Friday morning by emergency Cesarean section, according to 11 Alive. The infant weighs under 2 pounds and is in the neonatal intensive care unit, according to family members, who said he is expected “to be OK.”
April Newkirk, Smith’s mother, revealed Emory University Hospital will take Smith off of life support Tuesday after she previously said hospital staff told the family that doctors are legally required to maintain life support until Smith’s baby reaches viability, which is when the baby can survive outside the womb, because of the LIFE Act.
“It’s kind of hard, you know,” she said of Smith’s pending death. “It’s hard to process…. I’m her mother. I shouldn’t be burying my daughter. My daughter should be burying me.”
The case provoked partisan debates about the hospital’s decision to keep Smith alive to save the baby. The Georgia woman was declared brain-dead in February when she was around two months pregnant, leading doctors to place her on life support.
State Democrats accused Republican lawmakers of supporting anti-abortion policies that were “forcing people through unimaginable pain.”
Republican state Sen. Ed Setzler, who sponsored the LIFE Act, said he believed it was “completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child.”
“I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life. I think the hospital is acting appropriately,” he said.

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Newkirk said she only wanted the ability to choose whether or not to pull her daughter’s life support.
“I’m not saying we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy. But I’m saying we should have had a choice,” she said during a previous interview with 11 Alive.