When the State's Needle Pierces the Womb: Adriana Smith and the Cruelty of Legal Control

In Georgia this spring, Adriana Smith  30 years old and pregnant - was declared brain-dead. But for over four months, the state kept her body alive on machines to grow a fetus, without her family’s consent, without Adriana's voice, and without Adriana's dignity.

Georgia's six-week abortion ban was cited as justification. And just like that, a dead woman’s body became a battleground in the war over fetal personhood. The legal machinery behind this tragedy  was meant to control life. And it did.

This is what happens when law eclipses love, and when compassion is a casualty of political performance.

The scaffolding that holds up such cruelty is older than this moment. It is rooted in power, patriarchy, and the insidious lie that some lives are disposable if others are deemed more "worthy." We’ve seen this before in the silencing of enslaved women, forced sterilizations, and in the criminalization of miscarriage. 

I chair the Committee on the Status and Role of Women in the Florida UMC, and when Roe vs. Wade was overturned, through I did not see this particularly gruesome case occurring, I knew that it was the beginning of further colonisation of the female body, and further, that Black female bodies would get it the worse. When I wrote a statement on behalf of CSRW condemning the actions of the supreme court, I was encouraged by a conference leader to soften the language, essentially, not calling a spade a spade. The statement was not changed. CSRW advocates for the full inclusion of women in the life of the church, monitors for inclusion, and manages reports of sexual harassment and misconduct. What was allowed to happen to Adriana, is directly related to the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. CSRW's advocacy work must expand to all the places where women are being harmed and I do not intend to be silent.

This ethical bullshit that Emory Hospital cooperated with is only one of the systems that legislate control over Black and Brown bodies while calling it “morality.”

Don't think for one moment that this was an isolated failure. This was a system doing exactly what it was built to do.

Adriana's family was shoved aside in their grief, powerless to do anything to return dignity to her body. Cowardly doctors, and other healthcare professionals, afraid of legal repercussions, did nothing (of record) to challenge the inhumane law. State officials also offered silence. And meanwhile, Adriana's body was used, her life was reduced, and her family was denied choice. Ultimately, what happened is that her womb was conscripted as a frigging battlefield. 

The whole shit reminds me of that nasty birthing scene in The Handmaid's Tale where that womb thief sat up in the birthing chair assimilating giving birth while the handmade struggled in REAL pain and the washed out female brutes sat around with tea in hand co-opting holiness into their body snatching orgy. 

And for what? Because of a legal fiction that says personhood begins at six weeks AND because the law cannot tell the difference between life and living death.

Sadly, this isn't just about Georgia, or about one woman. Around the world, similar patterns of control and cruelty unfold. From El Salvador to Poland, from Texas to Tehran. The script may change, but the message from cruel power-brokers and poor, ignorant people remains: "Your body is not your own."

I am grieving for Adriana's mother who had to be devastated by this evil Governmental act. Though I believe that the God who wept with Mary at the foot of Jesus' cross also weeps with Adriana’s mother, I also believe that when Jesus said, "Let the little children come unto me" he did not mean at the expense of their mothers. Further, I know that the same Jesus who healed bleeding women, listened to them, and restored their dignity is not glorified when dignity is discarded. Then again, none of this is ever about glorifying (any) God. It is always about power and greed. After all, power has managed to manipulate David's rape of Bathsheba, into a romance story.  Violence. Plain old violence.

I am lamenting. Howard Thurman called lament "faith speech." It’s how we link the pain of now to the hope of God’s response. And it’s how we testify that this world, as it is, is not what God intended. It is how we expose evil and worship with blood on our hands.

Why the hell was Adriana denied dignity? Why was her family silenced? Why does law continue to ignore death while policing life?

And what will we do about it?

If we are the church, and people of justice, we must cry out. We must name the systems. We must both speak truth to power and run interference when power refuses to budge, thus centering humanity over ideology. 

Adriana was a full human being whose body was reduced to biowaste.

No one should have to grieve with machines whispering state control over a body that's already gone. Personally, I pray that God does so and so to all involved in the evil.

May her name never be forgotten.

#AdrianaSmith #Blacklivesmatter #CSRW #Georgia #EmoryHospital #Handmaidstale #RoevsWade #sixweekabortionplan