Adriana Smith is a 30-year-old Black nurse and mother in Georgia. She was about nine weeks pregnant with a boy in February when her boyfriend woke up to her gasping for air in her sleep and gurgling.

Her mother told the media that her daughter had sought treatment at Northside Hospital the previous night and was released after being administered medication, but no CT scans or other tests.

Smith was taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta “with severe head pains,” according to MSNBC. “A CT scan showed blood clots in her brain, and soon physicians declared Smith to be brain-dead.” She has now been on life support for over 90 days.

The murky legality around this centers on Georgia’s LIFE Act, a law banning most abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy once “fetal cardiac activity can be detected” — aka Georgia’s heartbeat law. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law in 2019, but it was only invoked once Roe v. Wade was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2022.

Officials seem to be in disagreement about the interpretation of the law, though. The office of the Georgia Attorney General issued a statement reading, “There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death. Removing life support is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.” However, Ed Setzler, a Republican state senator who sponsored the 2019 bill, said he thinks it’s “completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child […] I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life. I think the hospital is acting appropriately.”

Medical staff at Emory, where Adriana Smith worked, have been ignoring the wishes of her family in favor of the law, which leaves a glaring gray area in the case of a legally dead mother.

Smith’s mother and family have expressed that they’ve had virtually no say in her medical care or that of her fetus. “She’s been breathing through machines for more than 90 days,” her mother said. “It’s torture for me. I see my daughter breathing, but she’s not there. And her son — I bring him to see her.”

The family has reportedly been by her side every day since she was admitted to the hospital. Smith’s young son reportedly thinks his mother is just sleeping.

According to Atlanta television station WXIA-TV, “The plan now is to keep Smith alive until doctors believe the baby can survive outside the womb — likely at 32 weeks gestation.” That would mean 10 more weeks on life support; Smith’s family said doctors have told them there are no other legal ways to proceed. “This decision should’ve been left to us. Now we’re left wondering what kind of life he’ll have — and we’re going to be the ones raising him,” Smith’s mother said.