{"id":331415,"date":"2025-05-16T06:49:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T11:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=331415"},"modified":"2025-05-19T01:41:40","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T06:41:40","slug":"fact-check-law-brain-dead-pregnant-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/fact-check-law-brain-dead-pregnant-support\/","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECK: Is a pro-life law forcing a brain dead pregnant woman to stay on life support?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>A pregnant woman in Georgia who has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.11alive.com\/article\/news\/local\/family-claims-atlanta-nurse-declared-brain-dead-kept-alive-pregnancy\/85-eac5257d-a329-4dd7-b80f-5c0ecd30225a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">declared<\/a> brain dead is at the center of an ethical controversy, as she remains on life support until her preborn son can be delivered. The media has been quick to blame the state&#8217;s pro-life &#8216;heartbeat law&#8217; for the situation, but an entirely <em>different<\/em> state law \u2014 one that came into being 15 years <em>before<\/em> the state&#8217;s pro-life law \u2014 is the more likely principle at play.<\/p>\n<p>Three months ago, Adriana Smith was nine weeks pregnant. She went to Northside Hospital with a severe headache, was given pain medication, and was sent home. The next morning, her boyfriend awoke to her gasping for air and making gurgling sounds. Smith was rushed to Emory Decatur before being transferred to Emory University Hospital \u2014 where she had worked as a nurse. A CT scan revealed multiple blood clots in her brain.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They [Northside Hospital] gave her some medication, but they didn&#8217;t do any tests. No CT scan,&#8221; said Smith&#8217;s mother, April Newkirk. &#8220;If they had done that or kept her overnight, they would have caught it. It could have been prevented.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Smith was tragically declared brain dead. She was moved to Emory University Hospital Midtown, where she has been on a ventilator for more than 90 days as doctors work to ensure her baby reaches an age when he has a stronger chance of survival before he is delivered and Smith&#8217;s life support is removed. According to media reports, the goal is to keep Smith on life support until her son reaches 32 weeks gestation \u2014 for another 11 weeks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AT A GLANCE:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Removing a pregnant woman from life support does not constitute an &#8220;abortion&#8221; as defined by the <strong>Georgia LIFE Act<\/strong>, currently being blamed by the media.<\/li>\n<li>Due to the <strong>Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care Act<\/strong> of 2007, removing a pregnant woman from life support is <em>not legal<\/em> in Georgia \u2014 <em>unless<\/em> her preborn child isn&#8217;t viable <em>and<\/em> she additionally has an advance directive that states her wishes to be withdrawn from life-sustaining measures. <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em> was still the law of the land when this act was passed.<\/li>\n<li>It does not appear that Smith had an advance directive in place.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Blaming the pro-life law<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As soon as Smith&#8217;s story became public, media outlets began pointing fingers at Georgia&#8217;s pro-life law, the 2019 Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, which went into effect in 2022. Abortion supporters have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DJpsam9BwmQ\/?igsh=NGIwZmd0d2U0bnRy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">expressed anger<\/a> that Smith has not been removed from life support, and are likewise blaming the state&#8217;s pro-life law \u2014 despite their complete lack of knowledge regarding what Smith would want for herself or her child.<\/p>\n<p>As one commenter noted on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/secularprolife\/posts\/1113553910816557?ref=embed_post\">Facebook post<\/a> by Secular Pro-Life regarding the case, &#8220;[Smith] knew she was pregnant and chose not to abort, so why would even those who are &#8216;pro-choice&#8217; be fighting so hard to go against the mother\u2019s choice to give birth if possible?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Georgia&#8217;s LIFE Act <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/codes\/georgia\/title-16\/chapter-12\/article-5\/section-16-12-141\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">defines<\/a> <em>abortion<\/em> as \u201cthe act of using, prescribing, or administering any instrument, substance, device, or other means with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy with knowledge that termination will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of an unborn child&#8230;&#8221; Removing Smith from life support does not fit the LIFE Act&#8217;s definition of abortion \u2014 an act done with the <em>purpose of terminating a woman&#8217;s pregnancy<\/em> to cause the preborn child&#8217;s death. The purpose of removing artificial life support from a pregnant woman declared <a href=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/5e3ada1a6a2e8d6a131d1dcd\/t\/5ed54f4d80bd90116a5f803f\/1591037775296\/2019FAQ_BrainDeath_FINAL.pdf\">brain dead<\/a> would <em>not<\/em> be to &#8220;terminate a pregnancy,&#8221; and removing that support also <em>does the opposite<\/em> of &#8220;using, prescribing, or administering&#8221; anything whatsoever to that woman.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that the LIFE Act clearly doesn&#8217;t even <em>apply<\/em> here hasn&#8217;t stopped the media from claiming that it does.<\/p>\n<p>However, there is a law that does apply: Georgia&#8217;s law <em>regarding life support<\/em> \u2014 the Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care Act,\u00a0in effect since 2007, 15 years prior to Georgia&#8217;s LIFE Act \u2014 is what&#8217;s more likely at play here. As Secular Pro-Life <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/secularprolife\/posts\/1113553910816557?ref=embed_post\">pointed out<\/a> on Facebook:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/codes\/georgia\/title-31\/chapter-32\/section-31-32-9\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GA Code \u00a7 31-32-9<\/a> from 2007, 15 years prior to the enactment of Georgia pro-life law, states that doctors can&#8217;t withdraw life support from pregnant patients unless both (1) the fetus isn&#8217;t viable and (2) the patient had an advance[] directive explicitly stating she wanted withdrawal of life-sustaining measures.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Both<\/strong> of these requirements of the law must be met to allow the withdrawal of Smith&#8217;s life support.<\/p>\n<p>Had Smith had an advance directive in place <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/codes\/georgia\/title-31\/chapter-32\/section-31-32-4\/\">specifying her desire for no life-sustaining measures<\/a>, doctors would have been legally allowed to remove her life support, since her child was nine weeks gestation and had not reached typical gestational age for &#8220;viability&#8221; (ability to survive outside the womb).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsecularprolife%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0oLgGwQdx6ig8RspfzYs7Aesd2KbBenkTmXizxkfVTvzhLAugVLbZHtgagoETTX3cl&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"289\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In this case, when Smith was first put on life support, her baby was not old enough to have been able to survive a premature birth. But he is now 21 weeks, and babies born at this gestational age <em>have<\/em> survived in some cases with medical intervention. His chances of survival will increase to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthline.com\/health\/baby\/baby-born-at-32-weeks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">95%<\/a> if he is allowed to remain in the womb until 32 weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Even before the 2007 law, in 1987 \u2014 while abortion was legal in Georgia under <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em> and <em>Doe v. Bolton \u2014<\/em>\u00a0the Georgia Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/11644465\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ruled<\/a> on the case of Donna Piazzi, who was declared brain dead and was in the second trimester of pregnancy \u2014 as Smith is now. Her husband wanted her life support ended, but the guardian ad litem and putative father of the preborn baby <em>did not<\/em>. The Court ruled that, based on case law and Georgia statutes, <em>only the mother<\/em> of a preborn child has a right to abort a &#8220;quickened, nonviable fetus.&#8221; It said that &#8220;public policy requires the maintenance of life support systems for a brain dead mother as long as there exists a reasonable possibility that the fetus may develop and survive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite unknowns about the health of Smith&#8217;s preborn son, <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/33600780\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">research<\/a> supports the possibility that he may survive if allowed to remain in the womb long enough.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/blackprolifewoman\/\">Christina Bennett<\/a>, news correspondent for Live Action, explained, &#8220;In this very tragic situation, the most humane thing that you can do with the possibility of one life that may be lost is try to save another life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What Smith&#8217;s family wants<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The headlines surrounding Smith&#8217;s case imply that <em>everyone<\/em> wants Smith disconnected from life support \u2014 the doctors and her family. This, along with blaming the LIFE Act, is misleading.<\/p>\n<p>Newsweek&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/abortion-braindead-heartbeat-pregnant-georgia-2072283\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">headline<\/a> claimed, &#8220;Abortion Law Forces Doctors to Keep Pregnant Brain Dead Woman Alive,&#8221; and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/news\/world\/americas\/us-politics\/georgia-abortion-ban-woman-brain-dead-b2751990.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Independent<\/a>&#8216;s headline read, &#8220;Brain-dead Georgia woman put on life support for 3 months to carry fetus to birth because of abortion ban against her family&#8217;s wishes.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/pregnant-woman-declared-brain-dead-kept-alive-due-to-abortion-ban-11734676\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">People<\/a> claimed, &#8220;Mother Forced to Keep Pregnant Daughter Alive After She&#8217;s Declared Brain Dead Due to Abortion Ban: &#8216;It&#8217;s Torture,'&#8221; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/family-forced-keep-brain-dead-pregnant-woman-alive-rcna207002\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NBC<\/a> claimed, &#8220;Georgia mother says she is being forced to keep brain-dead pregnant daughter alive under abortion ban law.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Yet, none of these media outlets appear to have spoken with Smith&#8217;s doctors \u2014 there isn&#8217;t a single quote from any of them. As for Smith&#8217;s family, there are no quotes from her baby&#8217;s father,\u00a0and her mother does not appear to have directly stated that she wants her daughter&#8217;s life support removed. The only news outlet Newkirk appears to have spoken to at this point is the local <a href=\"https:\/\/www.11alive.com\/article\/news\/local\/family-claims-atlanta-nurse-declared-brain-dead-kept-alive-pregnancy\/85-eac5257d-a329-4dd7-b80f-5c0ecd30225a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">11 Alive (WXIA)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Newkirk told 11 Alive, \u201cIt\u2019s torture for me. I come here, and I see my daughter breathing on a ventilator, but she\u2019s not there.&#8221; She added, \u201cI think every woman should have the right to make their own decision, and if not, then their partner or their parents. <em><strong>I\u2019m not saying we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy<\/strong><\/em>, but what I\u2019m saying is we should have had a choice\u201d (emphasis added).<\/p>\n<p>Newkirk did not state that she <em>would<\/em> choose to turn off life support and end her grandson&#8217;s life. She only said she would have liked to have the opportunity to decide. Again, the baby&#8217;s father does not appear to have been interviewed, and his name is currently not published in any news outlet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Vpj83HzFl7g?si=k2TmAAdI60on5txC\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Newkirk is also concerned because doctors reportedly detected fluid on Smith&#8217;s son&#8217;s brain. &#8220;&#8230; [M]y grandson may be blind, may not be able to walk, wheelchair-bound. We don\u2019t know if he\u2019ll live once she has him. It should have been left up to the family,\u201d she said, noting that they are concerned about medical bills as well as &#8220;what kind of life&#8221; Smith&#8217;s son will have, as Newkirk stated that they, as the grandparents, would be &#8220;the ones raising him\u201d instead of the child&#8217;s father.<\/p>\n<p>While these fears are understandable, this ableist sort of language seems to imply that if a child is blind or cannot walk, that child is better off dead. Families must be made aware of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.georgiaadvocatepartners.com\/services\/social-security-disability\/children-with-disabilities\/\">help<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.olmsteadrights.org\/self-helptools\/advocacy-resources\/item.6532-Georgia_Disability_Resources_and_Advocacy_Organizations\">resources<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.specialneedsalliance.org\/blog\/government-programs-for-children-with-disabilities\/\">available<\/a> to them.<\/p>\n<p>The media has again sought to advance its pro-abortion agenda with a tragic story of a death that should have been prevented with proper medical examinations and testing. Some might say it is miraculous that Smith&#8217;s baby survived at all.<\/p>\n<p>As Secular Pro-Life stated in the group&#8217;s Facebook post, the anger over this situation is &#8220;a testament to how very little abortion advocates value unborn children, that even in a case where the woman (1) cannot be harmed by continuing the pregnancy and (2) may very well have wanted her child to live, the framing is outrage that her son&#8217;s life is prioritized.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Smith wasn&#8217;t an &#8220;incubator&#8221; for her son <em>before<\/em> this tragedy occurred, and she isn&#8217;t a mere &#8220;incubator&#8221; for him <em>now<\/em>, though some have applied the term in this instance. It is dehumanizing \u2014 both to Smith and to the child in her womb.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/actnow.io\/G3Bhv6M\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-325597\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-1-700x251.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-1-700x251.png 700w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-1-300x107.png 300w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-1-768x275.png 768w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-1-500x179.png 500w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-1.png 1167w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A pregnant woman in Georgia who has been declared brain dead is at the center of an ethical controversy, as she remains on life support until her preborn son can be delivered. The media has been quick to blame the state&#8217;s pro-life &#8216;heartbeat law&#8217; for the situation, but an entirely different state law \u2014 one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":331420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[20722,3,9459],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>FACT CHECK: Is a pro-life law forcing a brain dead pregnant woman to stay on life support?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A pregnant woman declared brain dead is being kept on life support - but is it due to GA&#039;s pro-life law or its 2007 law about life support?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/fact-check-law-brain-dead-pregnant-support\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FACT CHECK: Is a pro-life law forcing a brain dead pregnant woman to stay on life support?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A pregnant woman declared brain dead is being kept on life support - 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She has 25 years of experience writing and editing. For more than a decade, she has focused her work on pro-life issues through human interest stories and political issues regarding abortion and physician-assisted death as well as research articles and op-eds dismantling the lies of the pro-abortion, pro-death agenda. 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