Three months ago, 30-year-old Adriana Smith was declared brain-dead. But a hospital in Georgia is keeping her “alive” on life support, against her family’s wishes, because of the state’s strict abortion ban.
Smith, a registered nurse in metro Atlanta, was nine weeks pregnant in early February when she started suffering from intense headaches. Smith initially sought treatment at Northside Hospital but was released that same day after being given medication. According to Adriana Smith’s mother April Newkirk, “They didn’t do any tests. No CT scan. If they had done that or kept her overnight, they would have caught it. It could have been prevented.”
Abortion is currently illegal in Georgia after six weeks. And even though ending Smith’s life support would not be an abortion, hospital staff say they plan to keep Smith’s dead body on life-support machines until the fetus reaches a gestational age when it can survive outside the womb.
When she died, Adriana Smith was already a mother to one young son. Doctors told Newkirk and her boyfriend that, legally, they aren’t allowed to consider other options while Smith is technically pregnant, even though her family wishes she could be allowed to die in peace.
“She’s been breathing through machines for more than 90 days,” Smith’s mother Newkirk said. “It’s torture for me. I see my daughter breathing, but she’s not there. And her son—I bring him to see her.”
I’ve read that it’s unlikely the fetus will survive or have severe health issues if it does survive. So let me see if I’ve got this straight. They’re keeping someone’s brain dead body alive for the sake of a fetus that most likely will die, meanwhile charging the traumatized family some ungodly amount of money that they will spend a lifetime trying to pay back, of course let’s not forget that those hospital resources could be used to actually help someone else.
You’re missing the part where the the fetus not dying is likely an even worse outcome (barring some kind of miracle) because it would likely have no quality of life and be a huge burden to the family and/or the state.
Never, ever elect Republicans.