In a powerful and emotional speech on the House floor, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) denounced the state of Georgia’s abortion ban for forcing a grieving Black family to keep their brain-dead daughter on life support, not for her own recovery, but because she was nine weeks pregnant.
Pressley used the tragic case of Adriana Smith, a young mother declared brain dead earlier this year, to underscore the devastating human cost of post-Roe v. Wade abortion laws, especially for Black women.
“Adriana’s body has been turned into an incubator,” Pressley said. “An incubator with no medical rationale, no ethical reason, and no compassion.”
Denied Her Bodily Autonomy and Dignity in Death
Pressley recounted how Adriana Smith’s family had to fight with Emory Hospital in Atlanta after the 27-year-old was declared brain dead.
Due to Georgia’s 2022 abortion law — enacted shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — the hospital interpreted the statute as requiring Smith’s body to remain connected to machines because she was approximately nine weeks pregnant.
“She had already transitioned,” Pressley said. “But because Adriana was nine weeks pregnant, about a month past a missed period, Adriana’s body has been turned into an incubator.”
Pressley described the family’s trauma as they racked up tens of thousands in medical debt and were denied the ability to say goodbye:
“Her parents are by her bedside. Her five-year-old asked, ‘When will mommy wake up?’”
A Legacy of Medical Abuse
Pressley contextualized the incident within a longer history of systemic mistreatment of Black women in American medicine, from slavery to forced sterilizations and maternal mortality.
“From the days of enslavement, Black women’s bodies have been subject to medical abuse, assault, and degradation in this country,” she said. “We are more likely to die in childbirth. We are routinely denied medical care. We are dehumanized. And like the case of Adriana Smith, our bodies and our dignity are desecrated in death.”
Demanding Justice and Reform
Pressley, who has built her congressional legacy on championing justice for vulnerable communities, said Smith’s case exemplifies how abortion bans strip women, especially Black women, of fundamental rights, even in death.
“This is cruelty,” she declared. “No family should have to endure this.”
Calling it “an unjust medical experiment,” Pressley concluded her speech by demanding a system that restores bodily autonomy and human dignity.
“Adriana should be here today,” she said. “Her blood clots treated, her voice trusted, her pain believed… None of us are free until all of us are free.”
