Adriana Smith and Her Family Deserved a Choice

For Immediate Release: June 17, 2025
Contact: media@weareultraviolet.org

UltraViolet, a leading national women-led gender-justice organization, released the following statement after reports that medical staff performed a C-section on Adriana Smith, the young Georgia woman whose body was kept on life support after she was declared brain dead while nine weeks pregnant:

“Adriana Smith’s family should have had a choice,” said Arisha Hatch, interim executive director of UltraViolet. “Her mother was clear that she wanted to make the decision about whether her daughter’s body should be kept on life support. But Georgia doctors and legislators failed Adriana and her family. The state’s extreme, dehumanizing abortion ban and the hospital administrators’ unwillingness to challenge it kept her body alive on life support—solely because she was pregnant—regardless of the family’s wishes.

“Adriana Smith’s death and the blatant disregard for her body, her dignity, and her family come amid a climate in which the MAGA regime everywhere is increasing attacks on women’s bodily autonomy, ramping up surveillance and control, even as women are killed because of it.

“At UltraViolet, we are sending all our love, prayers, and best wishes to Adriana’s mother, April Newkirk, and Adriana’s young son, who she left behind, as well as for her premature baby, who is fighting for his life in the newborn intensive care unit.

“Abortion bans are costing women our dignity and our lives every day. Far from allowing our bodies and lives to be controlled by the state, we need legislation that protects our rights, upholds our bodily autonomy, and empowers people to give birth on our own terms.”