Mother of Adriana Smith, Whose Corpse Was Used as an Incubator, Says Newborn Is Still Fighting

"His weight is gradually picking up, but the breathing is what we're concerned with," Smith's mother, April Newkirk, told 11Alive.com

By Lauren Tousignant | August 29, 2025 | 11:22am

Photo: GoFundMe Politics

Mother of Adriana Smith, Whose Corpse Was Used as an Incubator, Says Newborn Is Still Fighting

The story of Adriana Smith continues to be one of the more dystopian, how-is-this-happening stories of our post-Roe v. Wade world. Robbing a woman of her bodily autonomy after she died is something I thought I’d only ever read about in novels where theocratic dictators build baby-making warehouses to artificially inseminate enslaved women or aliens invade the world. But no, it’s just the United States in 2025.

In February, the 30-year-old then-mother-of-one went to an emergency room in Georgia, complaining of severe headaches, but was sent home without any scans or testing done. She was rushed back to the hospital a day later, after her boyfriend woke up in the middle of the night to find her gasping for air. A CT scan revealed multiple blood clots, and she was declared brain-dead hours later. But because she was nine weeks pregnant, and due to Georgia’s abortion ban, the hospital placed her on a ventilator—without her family’s permission.

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Smith’s baby, Chance, was delivered prematurely via C-section on June 13, weighing just 1 pound, 13 ounces. She was removed from life support a few days later.

“His weight is gradually picking up, but the breathing is what we’re concerned with,” Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, told 11Alive.com on Tuesday. “So, he’s making a little bit of progress, but still some things to do.”

The state’s six-week abortion ban is one of the strictest in the country and has very few exceptions, and Smith’s story sparked international outcry. Due to the ban’s muddy language and harsh penalties if healthcare providers fail to interpret the law correctly, the Georgia hospital seemingly kept Smith on life support out of fear that they’d be fired, or their have their licenses revoked. In May, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R) said the ban doesn’t require a hospital to keep a brain-dead person alive just because they’re pregnant—but that’s all he did. Just a half-assed statement; nothing substantive like ordering the hospital to take Smith off life support or, at the very least, contacting her family to discuss their options or offer his condolences.

“We didn’t have a choice or a say about it,” Newkirk told local news in May. “We want the baby. That’s a part of my daughter. But the decision should have been left to us—not the state.”

At her funeral, Democratic State Rep. Park Cannon presented a Georgia House resolution in Smith’s honor. The resolution, named Adriana’s Law, would ensure that pregnant individuals maintain control over their medical decisions.

“It’s not getting any better day by day,” Newkirk said earlier this week of losing her daughter. “I think about her every day, all the time.”