A pregnant Georgia woman who was declared brain-dead is being kept alive by ventilators because of the state’s law banning abortions, the woman’s mother says, telling local news that the family has no say in the matter.
===
Newkirk told the station that her daughter is currently 21 weeks pregnant.
“It should have been left up to the family,” Newkirk said, telling the station that doctors informed the family they are legally not allowed to consider any other options.
“I’m not saying that we would have chose to terminate her pregnancy, but what I’m saying is, we should have had a choice,” she said.
A spokesperson for Emory Healthcare said it “uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individualized treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia’s abortion laws and all other applicable laws.”
“Our top priorities continue to be the safety and wellbeing of the patients we serve,” the spokesperson said.
Newkirk said the family is also having to deal with the financial responsibility of keeping Smith on life support.
They are fucking ghouls. But we knew that.
Open thread
Baud
Timely. I just posted that downstairs.
Relatedly
JML
Can’t treat them wimmins like people! might get uppity.
(gah, I can’t stand these awful, horrible, no-good punks)
wenchacha
Did we not just have a review of mifepristone? I’m behind on this. Also, Fuck RFKJr.
Suzanne
I am 100% fully done with Dems who hem and haw about abortion. No “my personal beliefs BUT”, no “safe, legal, and rare”.
If you’re personally uncomfortable with abortion and don’t want one but still believe it should be legal, that means you’re pro-choice. Describe yourself that way. Resist the ick factor.
Because this abomination is the end point of this ick factor.
DAstronomer
Wait, the state government of Georgia is forcing that family to foot the bill for up to 5 additional months of ICU care? That’s unreal. Tragedy enough that this young woman is dead, but to saddle her family with millions of dollars of medical debt on top of the inevitable funeral costs and potentially birth costs?? Yikes.
Belafon
@Baud: We’ll get an acne medication review after that.
lowtechcyclist
Good grief, is this ever ghoulish.
That said, why is the family having to pay for their dead daughter’s continued life support? If the state of Georgia insists on keeping her body theoretically alive, the state of Georgia should at least have the decency to pick up the tab.
Steve LaBonne
[Barf emoji] [angry emoji] since we’re not supposed to just post emojis. That’s all I’ve got.
Belafon
@Suzanne: You imagine Democrats, and I imagine the Republican women I know who have never been married or had kids cheering on these decisions.
Dog Dawg Damn
Shades of Teri Shiavo. Horrendous.
MattF
Sounds like a reprise of the Schiavo affair. New and improved! Now with abortion! My recollection is that Jeb! came out of that one smelling like a turd.
Baud
Biden is old.*
* He also wasn’t in the ballot.
Suzanne
@Belafon: There’s been too much squishiness from Dems on this issue for a while. Most are understanding the assignment now. I think it’s a fairly generational thing, but Conor Lamb was one of those “personally opposed but think it should be legal” types.
Which: barf.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Self professed progressives who rail on people who push back on policy issues as they pertain to the Democratic Party, what’s it’s done and how it moves forward, and yet yammer about vibes and shit as being the most important thing we should be doing, basicaly in order to discount those voices (raises hand) that raise significant policy differences within the Democratic Party, then refer to *a* line in the sand, ala abortion, that any (D) candidate cannot cross are…policy voters.
Also too, “pro choice” has always been a mealy-mouthed way to label
ABORTION RIGHTS
I know, I know, the left has used this lame response to the forced-birther messaging and framing of the issue for decades. It’s softened since HRC ran (and she used the typical, shitty (D) messaging and semantics on the issue) and I’ve been heartened to see, on more occasions, Dems actually say “I support abortion rights” because it’s more direct and is a “screw you” back at the Talibangelists and the rest on the forced birther side.
Done ranting.
MattF
@Baud: He’s got this ‘I just invented a word!’ routine. A stable genius with an eight year old’s vocabulary.
oldster
If we had any smart, counterpunching Dems, they would make a Schiavo-sized stink about this, and some people who voted Trump would turn on the Republican Party with a vengeance.
If I recall correctly, the Schiavo episode had an important role in bring our blog host to see the light, when before he had walked in the Bush Junior darkness. Perhaps this new episode can bring more souls to salvation!
HopefullyNotcassandra
Medical malpractice to send her home in the first place — but nowadays how is a doctor to know what to do since the doctor has the State of Georgia in the ER with her
Who is going to pay the enormous forced hospital bill?
Axotl tanks
this woman is being used like an axotl tank
sukabi
Her family should sue the hospital and state for damages and the cost of her forced medical care. There is no way they should have to pay for the treatment she has been given to keep her body alive.
adding, top of their suit should be medical malpractice for sending their daughter home in the first place without actually diagnosing her properly…
Eunicecycle
My daughter just had a miscarriage on Mother’s Day. She has 3 children already, but it’s still sad and emotional for us. Thank God in Ohio there is no doubt she will get the care she needs. She doesn’t know yet if she needs a D&C but it will happen if so. I hate that women in other states have to go through this without knowing if care will be withheld.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I agree. I am equally put off by those who claim the pro-death GOP make these decisions with their hearts in the right place.
That is absolute nonsense.
Tell me again how many safe and effective life saving treatments are banned for any man in any state?
windpondalaska
It really is important to have a signed, notarized Health Care Directive at any age. I keep a copy of mine with me at all times, have a copy on my computer desk top and have an app on my iphone called My Directives.
Suzanne
@Eunicecycle: I’m so sorry for your daughter, and you. I hope she’s holding up okay.
Eunicecycle
@MattF: he just said he invented “equalize”, which I think was traced back to the 16th century.
oldster
@Eunicecycle:
It must be infuriating to have to sit there listening to this bloviating oaf when in fact your own command of the English language — acquired by extensive coursework and the best tutors, along with a finishing year at Oxford — is superior to his.
“I know what fucking “groceries” are, you syphilitic orange pustule!”
Eunicecycle
@Suzanne: thank you. When I talked to her yesterday she was holding up okay. She was an ob-gyn nurse at one point so kind of knows what to expect, and her ob practice has support just for miscarriages, so she’s feeling cared for. She hadn’t told us yet so the first I knew about the pregnancy was the miscarriage.
schrodingers_cat
68% of white women in Georgia voted for Trump in 2024 according to ABC exit polls. This is future a majority of ww chose for all the women in the state
This includes 49% of ww college graduates.
Eunicecycle
@oldster: I love “syphilitic orange pustule”!
Baud
@Eunicecycle:
I’m glad Ohio passed that referendum, or they’d be like GA.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Eunicecycle:
Somebody said in a comment over the last several days, given some of the definitions the forced birthers and their political front people have defining “life”, that the New Testament God is one helluva abortionist, as a reference to biological processes like miscarriages. Good thing He doesn’t live in a red state with draconian abortion laws.
I’m sure they’ll have an answer to that along the lines of “God’s Will”.
WaterGirl
@Dog Dawg Damn:
Teri Shiavo. Déjà vu all over again.
Fuck these horrible people.
WaterGirl
@oldster:
If you don’t think we have any smart, counterpunching Dems, you’re not paying attention.
They Call Me Noni
@schrodingers_cat: And that they made that choice for their daughters and granddaughters is even more pathetic.
Jay
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
The Old Testament God was one hell of a post birth abortionist.
UncleEbeneezer
If only we could’ve seen this coming. Oh wait…Kamala warned us. Biden warned us. Hillary warned us. Obama warned us. Hell, even Al Gore and Mike Dukakis warned us. And Republicans not only promised to do this shit at every turn for my entire lifetime, tried to do it at every chance they got but we also had the Dobbs ruling to make a centerpiece of our electoral strategy. The most winning and motivating issue for our side, but instead we focussed on making every conversation about Biden’s supposed “cognitive decline” (which lasted a whole 20 minutes of one debate) and Gaza. Well done, us.
WaterGirl
Women who want to control their own bodies are not even safely go on a trip without planning their route so as not to even drive through these states with draconian laws.
Emily B.
@Baud: Tell me that you’ve never gone grocery shopping in your life without saying you’ve never gone grocery shopping in your life.
oldster
@WaterGirl:
Oh, I have not given up hope altogether. AOC does good work sometimes; Chris Murphy is stepping up, and Pritzker has hit it out of the park a few times.
I will be happy to see any of them take a swing at this.
Sorry to sound unnecessarily negative about our team.
Eunicecycle
@Baud: we were! We had a “heartbeat” law, which was why the 10 yo who was raped had to go to Indiana (!) for an abortion. The legal abortion referendum passed by 57%, after we ALSO had to defeat another referendum to make the threshold 60%. It was a hard-fought battle but I am so glad it turned out well.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Jay:
That pretty much makes him a modern Republican.
Shakti
@sukabi: They should. They probably are, unless their suit is barred by sovereign immunity and the hospital can just claim they are following the law.
I do not know if this would also serve as a defense against the medical malpractice for the doctors and the hospital(s) though; possible wrongful birth, etc. .
@windpondalaska: It is. In the absence of one, the wishes of the next of kin (spouse, parents) prevail. Or they should.
[I remember with Schiavo, the husband’s wishes prevailed after years of court battle, but then the parents were also fighting the husband. This is not happening here.]
But my question is, in this case, would a medical directive have been followed or would it have been ignored so the hospital administrators could claim they were protecting themselves legally against violating Georgia’s anti-abortion statute?
ETA: Adriana Smith is black. This factors into the medical malpractice and the things they are willing to do to her and her family to be “pro-life.”
Sister Golden Bear
@wenchacha: Yes, but this review will justify banning mifepristone. Because reasons.
FWIW, it’s the exactly same approach RFK Jr. is taking to ban trans healthcare.
Jay
@Shakti:
Yes, it would have been ignored.
While the Hospital/Insurer would not be willing to “punch up” against the State, they have tons of practice “punching down” against the family and patients.
They have whole legal teams that do nothing but that.
Tenar Arha
I literally cannot talk about this aloud without the utter fury leaking out. Disgusting. The state, their government, the hospital, the doctors, the nurses, are all smearing themselves with toxic garbage.
Geminid
And Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss tosses his hat into the Moebius Strip! The Algebraic Topologist-turned politician announced he will run for the Illinois 9th CD seat now held by the retiring Jan Schakowski. Biss joins State Senator Laura Fine and winsome TikToker Kat Abughazaleh in the Democratic primary field.
Biss was an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Chicago when he was first elected State Representative in 2009. He came in second to Jay Pritzker in the 2018 Democratic Governor primary..
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@DAstronomer: She was an RN at Emory before this. She was 9 weeks pregnant when she was declared brain dead, I think. that was I believe, 90 days ago. The fetus has almost zero chance of survival and also almost zero chance of NOT suffering from massive deficits if it does survive. and her family will be on the hook financially for all of it.
Jay
@Tenar Arha:
The Doctors and Nurses are just protecting themselves.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@UncleEbeneezer: When Hillary was running I bitched at my coworkers and “friends” who said they just couldn’t vote for her because…reasons. “Do you want them to get their judges?” was my reply. DO you want them to overturn Roe. They did not listen. “Oh that will never happen” And Trump got to appoint 3 fucking Supreme Court justices and tons of federal judges. Who killed Roe. It was THE most important reason to vote for the Dem for President, no matter one’s reservations. God damn purity ponies.
Leto
I’d say we’re one step closer to axlotl tanks (Dune reference), but this is literally what it is.
brendancalling
I have been collecting a lot of names for my memorial poo poo tour. Rush Limbaugh, Marge 3-Toes, Sam Alito, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, and so many more. I’m gonna have to invest in a giant tub of Metamucil and a huge bottle of Duralax to produce enough for these villains, Looks like I’m adding a bunch of people from Georgia!
cckids
@DAstronomer:
The “pregnancy” is at 21 weeks NOW. This has been going on since she was at NINE WEEKS.
Evil, ignorant and cruel.
@DAstronomer:
Professor Bigfoot
@Leto: Except this involves the use of a human body, without that human’s consent.
I think we’d welcome an actual axlotl tank or better, a “uterine replicator” like the Vorkosigans; but this is… macabre.
Gretchen
Mifepristone and misoprostol were declared Schedule 4 drugs in Louisiana so have to be kept locked up and logged out. These used to be kept on postpartum crash carts to quickly respond to a postpartum bleed. Nurses had to run time trials to see how long it took to run from the labor room, unlock the drug cabinet, retrieve the drugs and run back to the labor room in hope of being in time to save the woman bleeding out. But nobody’s conscience has to be troubled by abortion.
These drugs are also used for miscarriage but providers and pharmacists are reluctant to provide them. So women are left to bleed to salve some legislator’s conscience.
Craig
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: my ‘associates’ called the judges argument Blackmail. Fucking children.
NutmegAgain
well that’s a fucking nightmare. And the family has to pay for the privilege of keeping their daughter on life support so she can be used by the state as an incubator?! Surprised they haven’t yet started inseminating other (white) women in vegetative states so they can hatch more white babies. Ewww.
Craig
@DAstronomer: disgusting. Just disgusting.
matt
sounds really expensive. FU Georgia.
Ohio Mom
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Yes, I had seen somewhere on the internet that the fetus wasn’t developing properly and googled to confirm my foggy memory. From USA Today: “fetus has shown signs of potential health issues due to fluid on the brain.”
Meanwhile, the House continues apace to gut Medicaid, the program that would pay for the supports and services this baby will need should he be born alive and disabled.
prostratedragon
@Gretchen: Vanity takes strange forms.
Ohio Mom
@brendancalling: We could have a very long thread if we were asked to nominate right-wingers for your tour. For one, I think you should include Reagan, whose presidency kicked off this horrible age we are living through.
Manyakitty
@Eunicecycle: I’m so sorry. Peace.
matt
@brendancalling: be careful! DNA can be extracted.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
I am physically unable to get pregnant and have been my entire life since day one – wrong half of humanity, and I don’d believe – I KNOW it should be legal. It’s not my body, it’s not anyone else’s body, it is the body of the sole person, who can get pregnant. Unless this isn’t a democracy, no one else other than the human whose body it is, has the right to tell her she has to get pregnant for whatever reason they might believe. It is HER BODY, no one else’s. It doesn’t belong to a church, or her husband, or to any other human.
It belongs to her.
And her alone.
Jay
So, the Worcester, Mass ICE “raid” is much worse that we though.
ICE deliberately targeted the family, using the wife, daughter and granddaughter as “bait” to try to “get” the husband.
His “crime”, honking at an unmarked ICE vehicle cutting in front of him, that was making an illegal and dangerous lane change with no turn signals.
Rolling Stone has the story.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/ice-kids-bait-arrest-woman-worcester-massachusetts-1235338539/
Baud
@Geminid:
New pope is a mathy.
Trollhattan
Goody, the metroplex gets to live through this a third time.
And the punchline.
Tenar Arha
@Jay: Yes.
And yet also, they have a choice. It’s not a good one, but that’s the place we’ve reached, everyone participating in this gets the taint on them the worst. (I’m also fully aware if you look at it from the federal level, as a society we’re just generally ALL compromised at one level or another by this).
Kayla Rudbek
@Professor Bigfoot: uterine replicator with strong legal regulations (Bujold explores some of the ways it can go wrong, but I can come up with a lot more because I am a lawyer and I was raised Catholic as opposed to Protestant; in my opinion, the Vorkosigan saga should be required reading for any bioethics degree; and I’m sure that anyone Black in the USA could come up with even more issues that a uterine replicator would raise)
UncleEbeneezer
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: The Purity Ponies are horrible. But nothing was ever gonna likely change their minds. We all needed to just completely shun them and not let them control the conversation. But too many people wanted to make a show of “hearing them out” while those conversations were convincing even more people that not voting was justified or worse, a virtuous act. It was the enablers who piss me off even more.
Steve LaBonne
@Jay: I “enjoyed” the part about the local cops “de-escalating the situation” = assisting ICE when doing so is against state law. Fascist goons gotta stick together I guess.
Jay
@Tenar Arha:
Life in Prison for a provider of care in a system that does not care, at all.
The DJTdiot DOJ is investigating United Healthcare, probably because the DJTdiot donor shareholders are pissed off.
Baud
catclub
CNN:
Where is Betty Crack when we need her insights?
Jay
@catclub:
4 out of 5 Dentist’s approve.
Gotta pay for that 3rd house somehow.
Eunicecycle
@Manyakitty: thank you, Manyakitty.
Trollhattan
@catclub:
Florida, catching up to Utah. What a weird world this is.
Trollhattan
@Jay: Boat payment!
prostratedragon
He came here with his family after the great 1982 earthquake.
Baud
Out: Smuggling fentanyl
In: Smuggling fluoride
suzanne
@Ruckus: Agreed. And a question of proper terminology came up above; I will note that I and some others prefer the term “pro-choice” because it encompasses other choices, as well….. the choice of whether or not to consent to sex, the choice to use birth control and what kind, whether or not to seek an abortion, whether or not to consult with others. Choosing, in the active-voice sense of the word, is the act of full autonomy.
I don’t split hairs over it, if people want to discuss it as “reproductive freedom” or “rights”, it’s all the same to me. Just thought I’d throw it out there why some people prefer the terminology of choices.
Omnes Omnibus
@Eunicecycle: Oh, I am so sorry. I hope she is okay.
Chief Oshkosh
@Jay: There’s no asshole like a Masshole.
scav
Who knows? Georgia may decide it needs to start awarding medals of patriotic god-inspired valor to rapists to honor their efforts to maintain the (appropriate) bloodlines.
Eunicecycle
@Omnes Omnibus: She is doing pretty well. I’m just glad she can get the care she needs without any question. All women deserve that!
Jay
@scav:
Keeping it in the family?
Tenar Arha
@Jay: But that’s not the only bad choice. The list of bad choices includes changing specialty, or move to another state, or leave medicine, or possibly even just quit one’s job when the moral choice finally is before one—which could mean prison. There’s no good choices left being in obstetrics anymore. Pretty soon there’ll probably be no good choices being in gynecology.
I mean for real, after they take away mailing mifepristone, what do you think is next? I’m pretty sure it’ll be certain forms of birth control pills. I don’t know how they’ll manage to restrict/outlaw IUD’s, implants, diaphragms, or tubal ligation but they’ll outlaw them too. Gynecologists & OB’s who care for women who especially don’t want children really should prepare themselves everywhere.
Jay
https://bsky.app/profile/weratedogs.com/post/3lp5zajfq4k2b
Anyway
@Jay: I blame the institutions— well-paid hospital admins and Legal Departments who don’t want to make the tough call. Cowards that wouldn’t stand up to or speak against GOPthugs when they were passing these laws.
Jackie
@catclub:
I talked to my daughter in FL; she’s pissed. She said DeStupid said there’s nothing preventing residents from having fluoride in their private water system. At what cost we wondered? And would that apply to renters, or only homeowners, and again, at what cost? She has two teenagers she’s trying to keep cavity-free.
Jay
@Tenar Arha:
If memory serves me right, most of the Utah? OBGYN’s and nurses, voted with their feet, leaving the State and moving to Washington State.
Jay
@Jackie:
You can buy flouride online. Gel treatments for teeth, drops for water. Not expensive.
Harrison Wesley
@Jay: It’s right after fentanyl in the catalog.
Tenar Arha
@Jay: IIRC I think it was Idaho, but yeah major healthcare drain. /sigh
Anyway, off to watch Sinners in 70mm, my second viewing. Hopefully this time no one will interrupt the beginning or the end. 🤦🏻♀️
Steve in the ATL
Man, I’m glad I’m not pregnant.
Jay
@Steve in the ATL:
We all are, can you imagine the bitching we would all have to suffer with, your morning sickness, your swollen ankles, the demands for pickles and ice cream, etc.
And you are a man, man. Y’all ain’t built for birthing no babies. You think you are dying from a mild cold.
prostratedragon
@Jackie:
BK Titanji: [My bold]
Gvg
@Jay: not mine. They are not happy at all, and my hygienist just gave me my first fluoride treatment last week. I am 62 and prone to expensive cavities. I have just had some implants done because some teeth were unsalvagable last year, and the infections were painful. This in spite of my care. Apparently I have thin enamel. The fluoride treatment was $20 so it wasn’t a profit sale IMO.
Lots of comments about what is proven to work, and multiple employees citing different studies so it was on all their minds.
Sally
@Suzanne: Sorry Suzanne. Safe, legal, and none of your (anybody’s) business. Why do we have to qualify it with rare? I get that contraception, maternity leave, childcare and financial help should be widely available, thus mitigating the need for some terminations. But, just none of anyone else’s business.
Mai Naem mobile
@cckids: i don’t understand how they can have the family financially responsible . She’s an adult. The article says she is/was with a boyfriend, not husband. I mean I guess they could stick the bills on her very minor child….that kid can start with some screwing the screws on an apple phone assembly job to pay off his/her dead mother’s medical bills.
Mai Naem mobile
@Trollhattan: boat? pfft,,, thats so 2015….in tfg’s 2025 its got to be a qatari sized yacht!
Suzanne
@Sally: That’s the point I’m trying to make. Fuck rare. We don’t talk about wanting any other medical treatment to be rare. That perpetuates stigma.
Safe, legal, do what you want. Choose any choice, the important part is choosing.
Steve in the ATL
@Suzanne: as I recall, the point of “rare” was that women would have access to birth control and sex education and would feel empowered to say no, thus there would be fewer unwanted pregnancies. After all, prevention is a lot safer than a medical procedure.
I get your point, but I think that you are overthinking it.
Of course, as I noted above, I’m not pregnant so what do I know?
Sally
@Steve in the ATL: I also don’t want it stigmatised. It’s a medical procedure
@Suzanne: We are in total agreement
BellyCat
No doubt, the insurance companies will be happy to pay for life support for this no longer sentient mother as well as provide cradle to grave medical care for the child if it survives.
Sure…
Gloria DryGarden
@Kayla Rudbek: I wish there could be a large group of catholic and raised catholic people, especially women, to discuss the ethics and sanctity of the lives of grown women, and to build momentum within the catholic leadership to create a more pro- abortion rights stance.
The last pope, and now this new pope, seem a lot more caring about people. The medical situations, alone, that catholic hospitals won’t help with over their stance, is very troubling.
There also isn’t time, during pregnancy situations, to await courts, and politicians, and legal processes.
Are women humans, and our lives valuable, or not?
Sally
@Gloria DryGarden: Are women humans, and our lives valuable, or not?
Never ask what you don’t want to know.
Ruckus
@suzanne:
Imagine this country is actually a democracy.
Imagine that no one has the right to do what is happening in this situation.
Imagine if this woman had religious beliefs that they are going against.
Imagine a democracy where half the population has no available concept of their own body and appropriate healthcare for it. I sure as hell wouldn’t call that a democracy.