A brain-dead woman's pregnancy raises questions about Georgia's abortion law

The case of a Georgia woman declared brain dead but being kept on life support because she is pregnant is raising complicated legal questions about restrictive abortion laws in Georgia and other states.

Adriana Smith, a 30 year-old nurse and mother, was about nine weeks pregnant in February when doctors declared her brain dead after she suffered a medical emergency.

But Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, told Atlanta TV station WXIA that doctors at Emory University Hospital have been keeping her organs functioning since then until the fetus can be delivered, citing Georgia’s law banning most abortions after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, or roughly six weeks into pregnancy.