Adriana
Smith, a mother and nurse in the U.S. state of
Georgia, was 9 weeks pregnant with her second child when
she started experiencing unusually intense, painful
headaches. She went to the hospital, but they simply
gave her medication. The next morning, her partner
noticed her "gasping for air in her sleep." He rushed
her to another hospital, where doctors discovered blood
clots in her brain. Doctors declared her brain-dead
and medically dead.
But then medical staff
said they had to put the dead woman on
life support to keep her body alive, and carry her fetus
to term. Under Georgia's abortion-banning
"heartbeat bill," they were terrified of being
charged with terminating the woman's
pregnancy.
Medical experts agree that there
is very little chance her body would be
able to deliver a healthy baby, especially since she
went on life support so early on in her pregnancy.
Already, the fetus has fluid in its brain. As a result,
doctors have warned the family that it "may be blind,
may not be able to walk, [and] may not survive" after
birth.
Despite this, she's been
on life support for 3 months, and her body has
reached 21 weeks of pregnancy. Doctors plan to keep her
in this condition for another 3 months. Once her body
reaches 32 weeks of pregnancy, they plan to cut her open
via a C-section to deliver the baby.
But she is dead, unable to
consent, and not aware of anything that is happening
to her body. The woman's mother described it as
"torture" to watch her daughter undergo this
nightmare.
And in the meantime, the hospital
bills keep stacking up. The family has had to turn to
GoFundMe to raise money to cover these
costs.
Georgia lawmakers must take a cold,
hard look at the pain they're causing. They must stop holding this
dead woman's body hostage, and reverse their grotesque
"heartbeat bill"! Sign the petition!
