Over the weekend, 30-year-old Adriana Smith was finally laid to rest after months on life support.
Family and friends celebrated the young mother’s life at Fairfield Baptist Church in Lithonia by sharing memories of Smith’s kind spirit, while also expressing concerns about the circumstances surrounding her medical care.
“It’s awful what’s happened to this family,” Tuezday Naper told Capital B Atlanta. “Women’s rights have been taken from this young woman. Our country has got to do better.”
Read More: Mourners Attend Adriana Smith’s Funeral and Call Out Georgia Abortion Ban
During her tribute to Smith, state Rep. Park Cannon shared new legislation designed to put the decision-making power back in the hands of patients and their families over Georgia’s restrictive abortion ban.
“As a doula who is working in and out of Georgia hospitals, I can personally understand how families’ decision-making gets overshadowed by the climate of medical hostility in Georgia,” Cannon told Capital B Atlanta.
Smith’s case drew national attention because of the unique and controversial situation. On Feb. 9, Smith began to complain about headaches. The young nurse and mother went to two different hospitals for help, and was sent home with medication but without a CT scan.
A week later, she was found unresponsive at home, and on Feb. 19, Smith was officially declared brain-dead and put on life support. Her mother, April Newkirk, told WXIA that doctors at Emory Hospital said legally they could not consider any other options.
“I’m not saying that we would have chose to terminate her pregnancy, but what I’m saying is, we should have had a choice,” Newkirk said.
In June, a few days after doctor’s performed an emergency cesarean section to prematurely deliver her baby, the young mother of two was taken off life support.
Newkirk gave an update on her grandson last week. Born at only six months, Smith’s son Chance weighed just 1 pound and 13 ounces.
“He’s just fighting. We just want prayers for him. Just keep praying for him. He’s here now,” she said. Smith also leaves behind a 7-year-old son named Chase.
The new law proposed by Cannon would have put the decision about how to handle Smith’s end of life care back in the hands of her family, who were not consulted before doctors put her on life support in an effort to preserve her six-week-old pregnancy.
Adriana’s Law would give precedent to an individual’s advance directive over the LIFE ACT, Georgia’s ban on abortion after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, which is usually in the sixth week. An advance directive, or living will, is a legal document that allows a patient to specify their end-of-life wishes ahead of time in case they become incapacitated.
“The family has been very clear this entire time that because she’s a nurse and had an Advanced Medical Directive that they wanted her wishes honored. However, because the hospital system has been in fear of retaliation by the state’s abortion ban, they did not honor those wishes,” Cannon said.
Read More: She Is Medically Brain Dead. Georgia’s Abortion Law Is Keeping Her Body Alive.
When the LIFE ACT passed in 2019, it codified fetal personhood, which gives a fetus the same rights as a person — therefore making it a felony to perform an abortion.
“When House Bill 481 was passed, we explained to our colleagues in the majority, that there would be vague circumstances that this law did not appropriately or respectfully take into consideration. And Adriana’s situation is an example of the complications that arise in pregnancy and the importance of medical providers being able to act swiftly,” Cannon said.
Read More: Baby Born to Brain-Dead Woman Spurs Nikema Williams’ Push against Abortion Law
The state legislature is in recess, so Adriana’s Law can’t be introduced until the next session begins in January. While the governor does have the power to call for a special session, Gov. Brian Kemp has been a staunch advocate for the abortion ban.
“We are in the drafting process now, and we will have a public roundtable of stakeholders in August. So if people are interested in being a part of that stakeholder roundtable, they should contact my office and we’ll share that information at the appropriate time,” Cannon said.
Smith’s situation also spurred action from Atlanta’s congressional representative Nikema Williams, who was in the state legislature in 2019 and voted against the LIFE ACT. Williams, joined by U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Sara Jacobs of California, introduced a congressional resolution to guarantee autonomy and dignity to pregnant people.
“Adriana Smith deserved better at every point of this tragedy. Her family, along with baby Chance, remain in my family’s prayers as they navigate life after this unimaginably devastating situation that Georgia’s laws imposed on them,” Williams said in a statement.
