The War Over Adriana Smith’s Story: When Motherhood Is Called ‘Torture’

You may have seen the headlines about Adriana Smith, a 31-year-old Atlanta nurse who was declared brain dead in February. At the time, she was just nine weeks pregnant. Doctors placed her on artificial life support so her unborn baby could continue to develop in the womb. On June 13, Adriana’s baby boy—Chance—was delivered by emergency C-section at 25 weeks, weighing just under two pounds. Though premature, Chance was born healthy and is expected to thrive with neonatal care. Four days later, Adriana was removed from life support and passed away.

Now abortion lobbyists are exploiting Adriana’s story to advance their political agenda. Georgia has one of the strongest pro-life laws in the country—its LIFE Act prohibits abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks. Planned Parenthood and other abortionists are calling for the law to be repealed, claiming that keeping Adriana on life support while her baby grew was a case of “forced pregnancy,” invoking dystopian comparisons to The Handmaid’s Tale.

Alicia Stallworth, director of NARAL Pro-Choice America’s Southeast Campaign said, “the system” that kept Adriana alive didn’t see her as “fully human” because Chance was allowed to live. The National Network of Abortion Funds declared that Adriana’s body and dignity were “desecrated in death.” Ironically, the pro-abortion group SisterSong likened Adriana to a “battleground for political power plays.” Even the comments on the fundraising page set up by Adriana’s mother mourn “for your lost individuality, your lost autonomy” rather than celebrating Chance’s birth. 

What is wrong with our culture?

It’s what I call the Stephens Syndrome. Alexander Stephens, a Georgian and Vice President of the Confederate States, delivered his infamous “Cornerstone Speech” in 1861, just weeks before the start of the Civil War. He declared that the foundation of the Confederacy rested on “the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition.” Everything—culture, economics, law, religion—had to bow to that premise.

Shockingly, that premise endured. A statue of Alexander Stephens stood in the U.S. Capitol for more than 150 years—until 2021, when it was finally removed. For generations, a man who defended human inequality as a moral and political ideal occupied a place of honor in the heart of our democracy.

The moral reasoning that underpinned slavery has not disappeared—it has merely been repurposed. Make no mistake: the cornerstone of Planned Parenthood and its allies is the “great truth” that smaller, more vulnerable human beings are subordinate to larger, more powerful ones. That the deliberate destruction of innocent life is not only permissible—it is normal. And everything—our laws, our ethics, even our families—must bow to that belief.

This is why Adriana Smith’s case has become the pro-aborts’ rallying cry—not because it reveals a flaw in Georgia’s LIFE Act, but because for the abortion lobby, everything must bow to the altar of abortion. Even the tragic death of a mother who spent her final months sustaining the life of her child is not off-limits. They cannot allow Adriana’s story to stand as a testament to love, sacrifice, and the miracle of Chance’s survival. Instead, they twist it into a narrative of despair—hijacking her death to exalt a vision of radical autonomy that demands the right to end the lives of the most vulnerable. They throw around words like “dignity” and “compassion,” but what they really seek is control: control over who is permitted to live—and who is not.

In their eyes, Chance’s life was not a miracle—it was a problem. His very survival upends their narrative that abortion is compassion and death is mercy. Worse, it threatens their belief that they alone should decide who lives and who dies—an authority they believe no law and no moral truth should dare to question.

At Life Legal, we wholeheartedly reject that lie. We believe that every human being—regardless of size, stage of development, or circumstance—has an unalienable right to life. Adriana may have lost consciousness, but her body continued to nurture and protect her child. That wasn’t torture. That was motherhood. That was love.

And that love brought forth a fighting Chance.