Few issues polarize this country like abortion. Most Americans (ourselves included!) believe these intensely personal decisions should be made by families and doctors, not politicians. But even those who call themselves “pro-life” usually believe some exceptions should be made — in the case of rape, when it’s a matter of saving the mother’s life, or when doctors determine the fetus has no chance of survival.
But we’ve seen time and time again that “exceptions” don’t work.
When the Dobbs decision overturned Roe vs Wade in 2022, it suddenly became a crime to receive reproductive healthcare in many states across the country. In Texas, Amanda Zurawski nearly died only days after her state’s “trigger law” went into effect. Her water broke way too early, at 18 weeks, and doctors told her there was no chance that her baby would survive. But because of Texas’s abortion law, doctors had to wait until the fetus died inside of her, causing septic shock that almost killed Amanda, before they could give her medical care.
And right now, in Georgia, another tragedy is playing out before our eyes. A young woman named Adriana Smith suffered multiple blood clots in February and was declared brain dead, but because she was 9 weeks pregnant at the time, the hospital is keeping her hooked up to machines until doctors believe her fetus can survive on its own.
It’s important to understand that Adriana isn’t in a coma or even a vegetative state — legally and medically, she’s dead. She will never wake up. Her body is being kept alive by more machines and medicines than you can imagine, all because of Georgia’s 6-week abortion ban. Imagine being Adriana’s mother. Watching your daughter’s body hooked up to all those machines, kept in this horrible middle space between life and death, not for days or weeks but for months. In interviews, she’s called it “torture.”
This would all be hard enough if Adriana’s family were given a choice in the situation. But the state of Georgia doesn’t care what her mother or other loved ones want. And at the end of all of this suffering, it’s very unlikely that Adriana’s baby will survive, at least not without massive health problems.
The state Attorney General says this isn’t how the law is supposed to be applied, but the Republican State Senator who sponsored the bill, Ed Setzler, says this is exactly the way he meant for it to be applied. “I think it is completely appropriate,” he told PBS, “that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child.” Either way, the hospital is forcing this devastating situation because they’re afraid of breaking Georgia’s anti-abortion laws. The penalties in states with abortion bans can range from doctors losing their medical license to life in prison.
If Adriana, or Amanda Zurawski, or a ten-year-old rape victim aren’t exceptions to abortion laws, who is? And why should politicians get to decide? As Amanda says, she was lucky. She survived when many women, like Amber Thurman, Candi Miller, and Neveah Craine, did not.
We can’t change the Dobbs decision, but we can push for an end to state abortion bans. We’ve already seen it work, like a 2023 constitutional amendment in Ohio. It isn’t easy, but we owe it to Adriana, Amanda, and all of the women whose stories have yet to be written.
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