We are heartbroken and outraged by the devastating case of Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old Black mother and registered nurse from Atlanta who was declared brain dead over 90 days ago but is being kept on life support against her family’s wishes due to Georgia’s restrictive abortion laws. Adriana’s family is enduring unimaginable trauma, forced to witness their loved one’s body sustained artificially, while her young son still believes his mother is merely sleeping.1
This tragedy is not only a personal and familial nightmare – it is a glaring example of the systemic failures in our healthcare and legal systems that disproportionately harm Black women, femmes, and all birthing people. Adriana sought care for severe headaches but was dismissed without adequate testing. The delay in diagnosis led to irreversible damage, a painful reminder of how often Black women’s voices and symptoms are devalued and ignored.2
This is not just a case about abortion, it is about the fundamental right to bodily autonomy, compassionate care, and dignity in life and in death. Reproductive justice demands that all people, especially Black women and marginalized communities, have the power to make decisions about their bodies free from coercion, violence, or state control.
Under Georgia’s House Bill 481 (HB 481), Georgia’s six-week abortion ban passed in 2019, Adriana’s family has been denied the right to make compassionate, informed decisions about her care. This is another instance where medical providers are forced to interpret laws in a way that delays and compromises care. Furthermore, this policy not only strips Adriana of her bodily autonomy, but leaves her family in a prolonged state of grief, facing the emotional toll, financial burden, and ethical complexity of this inhumane situation.
What’s more, Georgia recently disbanded its Maternal Mortality Review Board – an essential oversight body – after the public began demanding answers about the preventable deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, two other Black women failed by the healthcare system. Instead of addressing the crisis, the state is silencing it. Georgia’s refusal to acknowledge and confront these injustices reveals a clear intent: to hide the truth, suppress accountability, and continue placing Black women and birthing people at risk.
At SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, Inc. (SPARK), this moment is a call to deepen our fight for the lives and dignity of Black women, birthing people, and communities who have the furthest distance to power.
SPARK has long stood at the intersection of Reproductive Justice and community organizing, advocating for policies that center autonomy, equity, and access to compassionate, culturally competent care. Our communities – Black, queer, trans, and gender-expansive folx – are disproportionately impacted by laws like HB 481, which criminalize reproductive decisions and uphold white supremacist, patriarchal systems of control.
Adriana’s story reflects the lived reality of too many in our communities. Her experience is not isolated, it is a reflection of a healthcare system built on structural racism and a legislative agenda that values control over compassion.
We demand:
- An immediate review and repeal of laws that override families’ rights in end-of-life care decisions.
- Accountability and reform within medical institutions to end the dismissal and neglect of Black women’s health concerns.
- Robust support systems – financial, psychological, and legal – for families navigating reproductive health crises and systemic trauma.
- Investment in community-based solutions that affirm the dignity, agency, and humanity of all people, especially those most marginalized.
Call to Action:
SPARK calls on our community, our accomplices and allies, and everyone who believes in Reproductive Justice to act NOW.
- Contact your legislators and demand the repeal of GA HB481 and the passage of laws that protect bodily autonomy and prioritize patient- and family-centered care.
- Organize and mobilize in your local communities – host teach-ins, amplify Adriana’s story, and hold space for collective healing and resistance.
- Donate to Adriana Smith’s family and organizations on the frontlines fighting for the lives and futures of oppressed people.
- Join our movement to build a world where everyone can live with dignity, make decisions about their bodies and families freely, and access quality culturally humble and respectful healthcare without discrimination and harm.
We must build a future where no family is forced to endure such pain, where no one is kept alive against their will to satisfy political agendas, and where black lives are cherished on both policy and practice. Adriana’s life mattered. Her legacy demands action!
In solidarity,
SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, Inc.