Dead Woman, Living Politics: Adriana Smith’s Diabolical Fate

Episode Title:

Episode Audio Link: https://podcast.ablackexec.com/episode/Dead Woman, Living Politics: Adriana Smith’s Diabolical Fate

Episode Video Link:

Dr. Nsenga Burton delves into the harrowing story of Adriana Smith, a brain-dead pregnant woman in Georgia, whose family was forced to keep her on life support due to the state's Heartbeat Bill. This episode highlights the broader implications of such anti-reproductive rights legislation, the emotional trauma inflicted on families, and the necessity for women to have autonomy over their bodies. Dr. Burton also discusses the misleading media portrayal of the case and the financial burden on Smith's family. The episode serves as a call to understand the laws and the impact of voting on reproductive rights.

▶︎ In This Episode

00:00: Introduction to Need to Know with Dr. Nsenga Burton

00:18: The Heartbeat Bill and Adriana Smith's Story

02:34: Media Misrepresentation and Maternal Mortality

05:10: Legal and Financial Ramifications

08:07: The Importance of Voting and Reproductive Rights

09:01 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

🔗 Resources

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

🔔 Listen and Subscribe

Listen to this episode and subscribe for future updates

subscribe to A Black Executive Perspective podcast on

• YouTube Podcasts
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify Podcasts
• Amazon Music
• Other platforms or by searching "TonyTidbit"

if you like what we're doing and would like to support us, here's some ways you can help us continue the uncomfortable conversations that drive change

1. subscribe to our newsletter
2. give us up to a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts
3. share an episode with a friend, family member or colleague

🗣️ Follow @ablackexec

follow us across social media @aBlackExec

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Twitter
• TikTok
• WhatsApp

⭐️ Follow...

Episode Transcript

BEP Narrator (00:02):
A Black Executive Perspective Now presents need to know
with the award-winning hyphenated Dr.
Nsenga Burton.
Dr.
Burton, what do we need to know?

Nsenga Burton (00:13):
Good afternoon and welcome to Need To Know with Dr.
Nsenga Burton.
I am she.
And today we're gonna be talkingabout a topic that is, um.
Yeah, very, very, uh, difficult topic totalk about, I think for a lot of people.
Um, but you may have been, uh,you may have been following
the story of Adriana Smith.
Um, a young mother, uh, and nurse,uh, in Atlanta, Georgia, who

(00:39):
unfortunately became brain dead.
And when, uh, she became braindead, it was found to have
been nine weeks pregnant.
And because of the.
Heartbeat Bill.
Uh, basically a law in Georgia that says,uh, fetuses have the rights of humans.
She was forcibly kept alive versus thewishes of her family, um, to let her go be

(01:08):
with God, um, in order to have the baby.
So she is a, uh, mother.
Of another child with her husband,partner, she has an entire family
and she, her wishes were not tobe kept alive by artificial means.

(01:30):
So I'm bringing you this becausethere is a lot of discussion about
reproductive rights in this country.
There are a lot of anti reproductiverights bills and the challenge with them
is whether where you fall on the, youknow, whether you're for pro, whatever.
Uh, people have reproductive rights,is that family business is family

(01:52):
business and decisions need to be madefor you and yours by you and yours,
and so you can't consider all of thepossibilities that could happen because
I just have to believe that even peoplewho are pro-life would understand what
her mother calls the terror quote.

(02:15):
And trauma quote of having to revisit thedeath of your child every single day until
someone else says, okay, this fetus hasgrown enough where we can take this fetus.
So they, uh, took the fetus.
'cause they keep saying, andhere's the other thing about,

(02:37):
uh, media that pisses me off.
They keep saying shegave birth to this child.
She did not give birthto this child, the baby.
If you wanna call it a baby, thefetus grew and became a baby,
um, basically in a dead body.
So anyone who's been a parent, anyonewho's been pregnant, imagine how

(03:00):
important the environment is for a child.
I.
At this precarious time.
Now, we've talked extensively aboutmaternal mortality rates, how they're
negatively impacting all women, butblack women, specifically state of
Georgia, has stopped counting them.
At one point, they were the nation'sleader in maternal mortality

(03:21):
as it relates to black women.
They no longer count maternal mortalities.
Um, and just like with COVID,when they stopped counting
the number of dead people.
That is a way to skew numbers sothat you do not look like you are
participating in a system or a processthat is having negative consequences

(03:43):
on a certain population of people.
Having said that, she didnot give birth to this baby.
The baby was taken from her via Cesareansection C-section, and media has been.
Poorly, poorly, poorly communicatingto people that she gave birth.

(04:08):
Now, there are differentways of giving birth.
There are different ways of bringingbabies into the world, but they should
not conflate the two when in factsomeone is brain dead and cannot push.
They cannot be experiencingany of the labor, any of that.
They are not knowledgeable of any of it.
So that is something different.

(04:29):
That is something different andyou do a disservice to people.
And I think it, it could be in an effortto continue to promote people voting
for pro-life, um, legislation that hasnegative consequences on women's bodies,
uh, particularly when women are notallowed to make their own decisions, their
families, their spouses, their parents.

(04:52):
Are not allowed to makedecisions for them.
Their, their decisions for themselvesare not even being followed, uh,
when traumatic incidences occur.
And so now the family's traumatizedand the family's on the hook.
I also have to say this,there is a GoFundMe.
Why?
Because the family's on thehook for the cost of keeping

(05:13):
this woman alive for months.
This happened in February.
We are in June, about to be in July.
How do we know that they do not careabout this woman and this child because
the family should not be on the hookbecause it went against their wishes.
Right?
They're following the law, right?

(05:35):
Not what she wanted, not what her familywanted, and because they're such wonderful
people, our attorney general, that wouldbe George's Attorney General, has said.
There was no obligation for thehospital to follow the law in that case.
Could have said that in February.

(05:57):
Comes out with it in June.
What does that mean?
Or how am I experiencing that?
This case has been a, a, a, a hailstormto make to, to, uh, to be polite about it.
Um, and that means now because he.

(06:17):
Who's up for reelection is nowunder siege because of what has
happened to this woman, or theyallowed to happen to this woman.
Um, he used to distance themselffrom this decision that was made.
It also means that by distancingthemselves from this decision
that is made, they can continue tosay they are not responsible for
the financial, uh, ramifications.

(06:39):
So I'm gonna wrap this up.
The boy was born,
taken from the mom.
And he's one pound and he's inthe NICU and they say he's okay.
So we don't know what that means.
You know, we've all, uh, I won't saywe all, but many people who've had
children have been around children.
You have nieces and nephews orwhat have you, who've been in

(07:00):
those precarious situations, um,knows that anything had happened.
He grew up and be a, a, have afull life or he'd be damaged.
There's lots of things that can happen.
Um, so we don't even know whatthe cost would be, but what I
do find interesting is that.
People will spend millions of dollarson a GoFundMe, contribute millions of

(07:20):
dollars to a police officer who haskilled an unarmed boy like Trayvon
Martin, a life Jordan, a life.
We keep going, um, but we can't getover a million dollars for Adriana Smith

(07:43):
at life.
And the life that was brought forthfrom her by being cut out of her
by people who followed the lawinstead of what is she wanted and
what her family wanted for her body.
And by the way, her 3-year-old thoughthis mom was asleep all that time,

(08:03):
then burying her on Friday.
So what I need you to know isthat elections have consequences.
You can keep talking about all this.
Oh, this is what we gotta do.
You know, I believe in this andthat you cannot control everything.
You don't know what is in store for you.
We don't even know if we'regonna be here tomorrow, truly,

(08:26):
especially with 47 in office.
So I just encourage you to know thelaw, to understand voting, and to
understand what the ramifications.
Are for those votes, and if youtruly believe as you say that God
is all knowing, then how do youknow that God did not intend for

(08:46):
her to come to him on February 25th?
So sorry, I couldn't be happy today.
I'm not.
Um, I'll do better than the next one.
I probably will.
Um, but I just think you need to knowthat women should have rights to their
bodies, and there's a reason why we saywe need to have rights to our bodies.

(09:10):
This is a great example of why tunein next week to an A Black Executive
Perspective podcast with Tony and Chris.
And to need to know with Dr.
Nsenga Burton.
I will see you then.
Be happy, be focused.
Keep your head on the swivel and be safe.
Bye.

(09:31):
A Black Executive Perspective