Lies continue about Adriana Smith and her son, Chance

At least two new stories are circulating in the media about Adriana Smith, the woman declared brain dead while pregnant with her son, Chance, and the efforts to keep her alive until Chance was born. The stories perpetuate the lies about the situation and why Adriana was put on life support.

Key Takeaways:

• 11Alive and PEOPLE recently published articles stating that Adriana Smith's mother and grandmother want to see an end to the Georgia LIFE Act so that 'women stop dying.'

• The Georgia LIFE Act does not force any pregnant woman to remain on life support, and had nothing to do with Smith's care after she was declared brain dead; her family stated that they wanted her baby boy to live.

• It is Georgia's Advance Directive for Health Care Act of 2007 which specifies that a pregnant woman cannot be removed from life support unless she has an advance directive stating that she would want to be.

The Backstory:

Smith was nine weeks pregnant with Chance when she went to the hospital with a headache. Doctors gave her medication and sent her home. But the next morning, her boyfriend noticed her gasping for air and making gurgling noises. She was rushed to the hospital, where a CT scan revealed blood clots in her brain, and she was pronounced brain dead. She was kept on life support for the next few months as her baby developed because she had no advance directive in place stating that she would wish to be removed from life support if pregnant.

The Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care Act of 2007 specifies that a pregnant woman cannot be withdrawn from life support unless 1) her preborn child is not yet considered viable, and 2) she has an advance directive in place stating that she would not wish to remain on life support.

Doctors caring for her also treated her preborn son as a patient and allowed him to continue to grow until he had to be delivered. Adriana's family wanted the baby boy to live and has asked for prayers for his continued improvement.

Yet, as soon as the story became public, media outlets blamed the Georgia LIFE Act. Under the law, an abortion cannot be committed once a preborn child’s heartbeat can be detected. The heart begins beating between 16 and 22 days after fertilization, and it can be detected via ultrasound at around six weeks gestation.

There is nothing in that law which requires medical professionals to keep a pregnant woman on life support after she is declared brain dead. Removing a woman from life support while pregnant would not be considered an abortion because it is not an act that seeks to directly and intentionally kill the preborn baby.

The media chose to ignore this fact — and dishonestly continues to do so.

The Details:

11Alive and PEOPLE published articles this week again falsely claiming that Georgia's pro-life law was the reason Smith was kept on life support, quietly suggesting that Chance should have never been born.

Smith's mother, April Newkirk, gave 11Alive an update on Chance's health and progress, saying he now weighs just under five pounds and will hopefully leave the hospital by October.

"His weight is gradually picking up, but the breathing is what we're concerned with," Newkirk told 11Alive. "So, he's making a little bit of progress, but still some things to do."

In reference to her feelings about the loss of her daughter, she is understandably experiencing profound grief, saying, "It's not getting any better day by day." She added, "It's hard because something's been taken away from us, it's hard. You know, I think about her every day, all the time."

To be frank, it should never be expected for a parent to simply "get over" or "move on" after the death of a child, or that it would become "easier" over time. Grief doesn't work this way.

A Pro-Abortion Law Would Not Have Saved Smith

11Alive went on to say, "Newkirk is waging her own war — telling her daughter's story to call for Georgia's heartbeat law — and others like it — to go."

Yet given the facts of the situation, this makes no sense.

Newkirk said:

I want them to know that this didn't have to happen. I want them to know that the law needs to be changed. It doesn't need to be altered. It doesn't need to be in effect at all. Women have rights; it's their body.... I would like to see young women stop dying.

What, exactly, "didn't have to happen"? The misdiagnosis of Smith's blood clots, or her son Chance's birth?

What an odd — and shocking — thing to say. And to which law is Newkirk referring — to the Heartbeat law (which says nothing whatsoever about requiring a pregnant woman to remain on life support) or to the 2007 Advance Directives Law, the latter of which is likely what kept her daughter on the intervention, since she did not have an advance directive in place?

Based on Smith's grandmother's remarks, it appears that the reference is being made to the Heartbeat law. She said, "We have to get rid of legislation. We have to get out and vote for positive change. We have to get out and vote. There has to be awakening."

Smith's mother's and grandmother's remarks inaccurately attempt to link the pro-life law to Smith's death — and to Chance's life.

Reality Check:

In reality, Georgia's pro-life law has not caused women to die.

As previously reported by Live Action News, ProPublica, which deceptively reported on maternal deaths in the state, admitted that the deaths of two Georgia women (who had notably both taken the abortion pill) were not the only two maternal deaths in the state, and that women have been dying during pregnancy and in the months after giving birth for years — not because of pro-life laws but because of substandard and negligent care.

Smith herself may have also been a victim of medical error. It remains unclear what caused the blood clots that led to her death. If doctors had discovered the blood clots upon her first visit to the hospital, perhaps Smith could have been saved.

Chance Deserved a Chance

11Alive said, "Chance is still fighting" and that Smith's older son, seven-year-old Chase, is learning "how to live without his mother through family and counseling." The situation is indeed heartbreaking, but it does not mean that Chance should not have been born.

Smith's family originally did say that while they were unhappy in not being given any say on the issue of life support, they were glad the baby had the chance to live — which is why they named him Chance.

At the time, Newkirk said, "I just want to be clear on something: we want her to have her baby. We want her life to continue through her children.”

Wishing Death Upon a Child

After Chance was born and Smith was removed from life support, social media users began demeaning Smith as a “corpse,” “rotting corpse,” and “desecrated corpse." In fact, the response from abortion proponents was more horrific than the misinformation spread by the media.

But "corpses" don't gestate.

Charlie Camosy

@CCamosy

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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. apnews.com/article/pregna…

3:04 PM · May 19, 2025

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Countless people wished for baby Chance to die, saying his survival would be "one of the worst outcomes."

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).

In the update from 11Alive, Newkirk said that "this didn't have to happen." It is unclear exactly what she meant, but based on 11Alive's article, it sounds as though she meant she didn't want Adriana kept on life support, and therefore, didn't want Chance to be born -- or at least that's how the article is spinning it.

The Bottom Line:

Legalized abortion would not have saved Adriana and would not save any woman from negligent medical care. The Georgia LIFE Act was not the reason Smith was kept on life support and is not the reason she tragically died.