Baby of brain-dead woman delivered in Georgia, woman's mother says

A brain-dead woman's baby has been delivered by caesarean section, the woman's mother says, after the hospital said her body had to be kept on life support due to abortion law in the US state of Georgia.

Adriana Smith's baby, named Chance, was born prematurely on Friday, Ms Smith's mother told local TV station 11 Alive.

The boy, who weighs 1lb 13oz (08kg), is being kept in the neonatal intensive care unit, said Ms Smith's mother, April Newkirk. "He's expected to be OK," she told the outlet, an affiliate of NBC News. "He's just fighting. We just want prayers for him."

Ms Newkirk said her daughter, a 31-year-old nurse, would be taken off life support on Tuesday.

"It's hard to process," she said. "I'm her mother. I shouldn't be burying my daughter. My daughter should be burying me."

The BBC has contacted the hospital for comment. It has previously declined to comment on individual cases, but has insisted that it prioritises "the safety and well-being of the patients we serve."

Ms Smith went to a different hospital in February because of severe headaches, and was given a medication and sent home, her mother previously said.

But the next day, Ms Smith woke up gasping for air. Emory University Hospital determined she had blood clots in her brain, and declared her brain-dead, her mother said.

At that point, her baby's due date was over three months away. But her family said doctors at Emory told them they could not take her off life support or remove devices keeping her breathing because the state bans abortion after cardiac activity can be detected, around six weeks into pregnancy.

Ms Newkirk said at the time that her grandson may be blind, unable to walk or even struggle to survive because of the complications of her daughter's health.

The decision to keep her on life support "should have been left up to the family", Ms Newkirk told the same NBC affiliate in May.

Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed a near-total abortion ban in the state in 2019. But the law did not go into effect until after the US Supreme Court took the decision in 2022 to overturn the Roe v Wade ruling, which had guaranteed women the constitutional right to an abortion.