In February, 30-year-old nurse Adriana Smith was nine weeks pregnant when she went to the hospital for intense headaches. Doctors gave her Tylenol and sent her home. The next day, she was brain dead. But the state of Georgia couldn’t just let Smith rest in peace. For months, they have forcibly incubated the fetus inside her lifeless body because of the state’s abortion ban.
Smith’s mother, boyfriend, and 5-year-old son, are traumatized, watching her hooked up to breathing tubes, a haunting experiment coercing her body from death. And this intersection of misogyny, anti-Blackness, capitalism, and ableism is historic.
Think of Dr. J. Marion Sims’ gynecology experiments. Henrietta Lacks. Forced reproduction during enslavement. Reproductive injustice in prisons.
Smith’s C-section is slated for August. Meanwhile, medical bills are piling up. Regardless of a “healthy” birth or not, the state will wash its hands of Smith. No life support. No investment in the child it’s forcing her body to bear. Her family named her potential baby Chance, making the best of the situation. But they wish they had a choice. Fundamentally, they wish Smith had received the CT scan that she’d needed, to prevent her death to begin with.
Medical misogynoir killed Adriana Smith. Anti-abortion legislation continues to abuse her body. Still, histories of reproductive violence also include the Janes, who ran safe, but clandestine home abortions in the 60s and 70s. Learning to aggressively self-advocate as patients has been another line of defense. And extracurricular reproductive political education. Mutual aid and networks like abortionfunds.org organize support. Resistance is possible.