Adriana Smith, a nurse in Atlanta and mother to a seven year old son, went to her doctor in February with an intense headache, was given medication, and sent home without further testing. The next day she woke up gasping for air and was diagnosed with blood clots in her brain. She was pronounced brain dead within hours.

Smith was nine weeks pregnant and under Georgia’s abortion ban, no abortions are allowed after six weeks except in cases of medical emergencies, rape or incest (only if a police report has been filed), and cases where the fetus no longer has a detectable heartbeat or if it is necessary to prevent the woman’s death or substantial physical impairment. However, since Smith was already dead and no more harm could come to her, doctors ruled that this case didn’t fall under the exceptions and did not perform an abortion.

Doctors said that because of the law and the fact that the fetus still had a heartbeat, their only option is to keep Smith on life support, which is what has been done for more than three months. Her mother has described this experience as “torture” and her son still thinks his mother is sleeping.

Ignoring the complete inhumanity of it all for both Smith and her family, there is also concern for the fetus. Doctors are considering keeping her alive and pregnant until thirty-two weeks, ten weeks from now. Not only is this cruel to the family and horrific for women’s rights everywhere, it is not a normal experience for the fetus. There is a scientific reasoning as to why this is never done. Fetuses are not meant to develop in the body of a woman who is kept alive by copious amounts of medicine and machines. The fetus has fluid in its brain that will likely cause issues upon birth. It could be born blind or paralyzed and in some instances, stillborn.

The trauma and strain put on Smith’s family has been immense. Smith’s mother has said that even though the family may not have chosen an abortion, having that choice taken away from them adds to the already intense trauma of their daughter’s death. Not only that, but the family is having to pay for the medical treatment. Life support can cost five to ten thousand dollars a day and that along with the potential cost of raising a heavily disabled child is crushing the family financially.

Abortion bans like this where doctors are forced to preserve the potential life of a fetus over the life and well being of the woman carrying that fetus, or, in cases like this the wishes of her family, are cruel and unusual and dehumanizing. The government should not be allowed to treat women as vessels and they should not be allowed to intervene in medical decisions.

“Now I’m awake to the world. I was asleep before. That’s how we let it happen. When they slaughtered Congress, we didn’t wake up. When they blamed terrorists and suspended the Constitution, we didn’t wake up then either. They said it would be temporary. Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale