Son born to American woman kept alive by anti-abortion law

A brain-dead pregnant woman who was kept alive in Georgia due to local abortion restrictions has given birth, authorities said.

Adriana Smith's case shocked the country, where access to abortion has changed radically since the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, overturned the federal right to terminate a pregnancy in June 2022.

Since then, more than 20 of the 50 US states, including Georgia, have imposed severe restrictions on abortion, or even outright bans.

“On Friday, June 13, 2025, their son, Chance, was born prematurely at approximately 4:41 a.m. via emergency C-section,” three Democratic congresswomen said in a statement.

Chance is in the neonatal intensive care unit, they added, and his mother was taken off life support on Tuesday.

Smith, a Black nurse, began experiencing severe headaches in February when she was nine weeks pregnant. She sought hospital care but was only prescribed medication.

The next morning, she was taken to the hospital where she worked. Doctors identified multiple blood clots in her brain and she was declared brain dead.

Georgia state law prohibits abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

Because Smith was nine weeks pregnant, doctors were hesitant to take any action that might violate the law, according to her mother, April Newkirk.

“That decision should have been left in our hands,” the mother told local NBC station WXIA-TV in mid-May.

“I’m not saying we would have chosen to terminate the pregnancy. What I’m saying is we should have had a choice,” Newkirk added.

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