The story of Adriana Smith, a pregnant woman declared brain dead in Georgia, has garnered largely inaccurate headlines despite the debunked narrative, along with public outrage. But even worse than the false media reporting is the horrific way some individuals have reacted to the birth of Smith’s son, Chance.
Reactions from some members of the public have revealed that pro-abortion sentiment often goes far beyond a mere wish to preserve a woman’s ‘bodily autonomy’; now that Chance is born, they are openly hoping that the premature baby boy does not survive — despite his grandparents’ plea for prayers for his health and wellbeing.
Key Takeaways:
- The controversy began last month, when the media said Smith, who had been declared brain dead, was being kept alive due to a law protecting preborn children from abortion in Georgia.
- Smith was actually being kept on life support due to an entirely different law regarding advance directives, put in place decades before Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.
- Smith’s family has said that, while they wanted to have a voice in the issue of Smith’s care, they were ultimately happy that Chance had the opportunity to survive.
- Media and pro-abortion commenters have reacted ghoulishly to the news of Chance’s birth, openly wishing for his death and labeling his mother a “corpse.”
- Some have pushed back on the very idea of what constitutes “brain death,” noting that a “corpse” could not have gestated another human being.
The Details:
At nine weeks pregnant, Adriana Smith visited the hospital for a headache, where she received pain medication and was sent home. The next morning, her boyfriend noticed her gasping for air and making gurgling noises. She was taken to Emory Decatur before being transferred to Emory University Hospital, where a CT scan revealed multiple blood clots in her brain. Smith was tragically declared brain dead.
The Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care Act of 2007 specifies that a pregnant woman cannot be withdrawn from life support unless 1) her preborn child is not yet considered viable, and 2) she has an advance directive in place requesting to be removed from life support.
Smith had no advance directive in place, so she remained on life support. Doctors —who treated her preborn child as a patient — made plans to monitor the baby and allow him to develop to the point when could be safely delivered.
As soon as the news broke, media outlets blamed the Georgia LIFE Act, leading the state attorney general to make an announcement on May 16 noting that Smith was not being kept alive because of the pro-life law, explaining:
There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death.
The Media Narrative
But it didn’t matter; the narrative had already been chosen, and the media would simply repeat it, well after May 16 — over…
… and over…
… and over…
… and over…
… and over again — drowning out the truth (a common tactic among pro-abortion media and politicians).
The Political Narrative
This misinformation was also repeated by pro-abortion politicians, like Congresswoman Nikema Williams (emphasis added):
From my service in the State Senate when the LIFE Act was passed in 2019, I know that the bill was drafted in a way that created uncertainty among medical providers and my constituents in Georgia’s 5th District about what is permitted under the law and how the law would be enforced.
The clear intention of this was to create a chilling effect on doctors providing essential maternal healthcare services and on patients seeking lifesaving medical treatment.
We are now seeing this lack of clarity result in unimaginable cruelty to Adriana Smith and her family.
Congresswoman Sara Jacobs shockingly talked about Smith’s child by name, while also describing his mother as “an incubator” (emphases added):
My heart breaks for Adriana Smith, her family, and new baby Chance, who had to enter the world this way.
Georgia’s fetal personhood law denied Adriana Smith’s family the ability to say goodbye to her on their own terms. Instead, she was kept on life support, breathing through machines for nearly four months to serve as an incubator.
Women are worth more than their ability to get pregnant and give birth – we are human beings who should be trusted to make our own health care decisions.
It’s devastating that Adriana is the latest casualty of our nation’s Black maternal health crisis and anti-abortion laws – but let’s ensure she’s the last.
… and Ayanna Pressley, who introduced a resolution about Smith, blaming Smith’s case on “systemic medical neglect and restrictive anti-abortion laws.”
These portrayals reveal that pro-abortion politicians have no issue with creating false narratives to promote a pro-abortion ideology.
Her family named him “Chance” for a reason
Smith’s family did say they were unhappy in not being given any say on the issue of life support, but also specifically said they were glad her baby had the chance to live — which is why they named her little boy Chance.
“I just want to be clear on something: we want her to have her baby,” her mother, April Newkirk, said. “We want her life to continue through her children.”
But again — the narrative that Smith’s family wanted her baby dead had already been crafted by pro-abortion activists in media and politics.
On June 13, Chance was born prematurely via c-section, weighing one pound, 13 ounces. Smith was removed from life support days later, and passed away on June 17.
The Reactions:
After Chance was born and Smith was removed from life support, the hatred did not abate — and one common tactic was labeling Smith as a “corpse,” “rotting corpse,” “desecrated corpse,” and other similar phrases.
NPR, for example, questioned if the case was a “medical marvel or horror movie.” But the response from abortion activists on social media was even worse than the misinformation spread by the media and pro-abortion politicians.
Countless people not only spoke out about the situation, but openly wished for baby Chance’s death.
One wrote, “If I was a child who learned I was birthed from my mother’s desecrated corpse I would kill myself.”
Another said, “I might be a monster for saying this, but I don’t want that child to live. Because if it grows to live and have a decent life, then we as women are doomed to never escape the role of an incubator. Adriana Smith was an experiment of a country that hates its women” (emphases added).
Another: “Hope the baby d*es so that idea doesn’t go much further I’m sorry” (emphasis added).
And another: “That baby shouldn’t be alive, he should be with his mother, he needs his mother” (emphasis added).
And yet another: “People framing the survival of Adriana Smith’s baby as a miracle when its actually one of the worst outcomes” (emphasis added).
While some commenters attempted to claim that their concern was for Adriana Smith’s older, seven-year-old son — or even for baby Chance himself, who they claimed was likely to be traumatized later to learn of his origins — some were honest about wanting Chance to die so that no other women would be used as “incubators.”
Overall, many had greater concern for the dignity of a so-called “corpse” than for the dignity of the child growing in his mother’s womb.
The Pushback:
But some pushed back against remarks portraying Adriana Smith as a ‘rotting corpse’ simply serving as an ‘incubator’:
Dead human bodies do not and cannot gestate children. Indeed, as any biological mother has experienced, pregnancy is a whole-of-body experience with multiple systems integrated (and in some cases designed) to protect and care for a child. https://t.co/zfO7GE39Tn
— Charlie Camosy (@CCamosy) May 19, 2025
Heidi Klessing, MD, shared information calling into question the very definition of “brain death” — and it isn’t what most people think it is. She wrote (emphases added):
… [A]s the latest (2023) American Academy of Neurology (AAN) brain death guideline explicitly states, you can be declared “brain dead” even when you still have brain waves on your EEG or if you still have ongoing function in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. This means that the way doctors diagnose “brain death” today does not comply with the law under the UDDA, which says there must be an irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain for a legal diagnosis of death….
The fact that someone declared “dead” can be kept alive proves that “brain death” is not actual death, but a legal fiction… no amount of medical care can help a corpse to gestate and deliver a baby.
Other commenters on X responded with varying degrees of incredulity at the death wishes and “corpse” terminology.
One surmised, “One day someone is going to show this boy all the posts wishing for his death from when he was born. Gonna be a bit to take in.”
Another wrote, “stop dehumanizing Adriana… all these graphic melodramatic comments about her ‘rotting’ body are far more disturbing and disrespectful than the actions taken to save her son.”
Another noted, “For those saying this mother is a corpse… Even if you wish to term her so, her placenta was miraculous. And was able to grow with that baby. I don’t know corpses that generate new tissues and bring life into this world and I wish for a better word for that woman.”
Another interjected, “I… find it odd that so many people are ranting about the ‘horror’ of the baby continuing to grow inside his mother’s uterus, although she was brain dead. It’s a tragedy, but it’s not some weird cursed evil thingumabob. Do these ranters believe zombie movies are real or something?”
Another user replied, “They take that whole ‘parasite’ thing and run with it. it’s a baby!!!”
Another commenter questioned why there was so much “rage” regarding Smith’s story, and a different user replied that it’s likely because of “the whole handmaids tale fantasy that’s hot these days.”
The Bottom Line:
Despite the vitriol, Newkirk said shortly after Chance’s birth that he was doing well and was expected to survive. Though details aren’t clear, it’s estimated that he was born between 25 and 26 weeks gestation, at which point survival rates range between 75 and 90%.
But while Smith’s family is hoping for this precious baby to survive, abortion activists are so invested in the culture of death that they are hoping this family not only has to grieve the loss of their daughter, but their grandson, too.
Editor’s Note: Students for Life of America reports that it has raised a large sum of money over the past month and arranged delivery to the hospital to help pay for Smith’s and baby Chance’s medical expenses. The current total stands at nearly $24,000 raised.
