Opinion: Georgia's anti-abortion laws were designed to hurt Black women

I’m a Southern Black woman, raised in Florida with deep Alabama roots and now living in Georgia.

I’ve witnessed systems rooted in racism that oppress and disrupt the lives of Black women, erode our bodily autonomy and roll back our rights. This fuels my passion for reproductive freedom.

I carry the stories of women like Adriana Smith’s with me into every room I enter. Adriana’s name, like Amber Nicole Thurman’s and Candi Miller’s, is not just a headline to me. It’s a reminder of what we’re up against.

Adriana Smith was a 30-year-old Black mother and nurse from Atlanta. Long after being declared brain-dead, her body was kept on life support for more than 90 days.

This is a direct consequence of Georgia’s six-week abortion ban. Adriana’s mother calls the experience “torture.” And she is right.

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Credit: hand

Credit: hand

Adriana Smith deserved care, not cruelty. Her family deserves peace, not suffering because of the direct actions of anti-abortion extremists. These laws aren’t just failing Black women like Adriana; they are working exactly as intended in a system that sees our lives as less worthy of compassion, care or control over our own bodies — even in death.

This isn’t just one family’s tragedy. It is the direct result of policies designed to control Black women, prolong our pain and erase our humanity.

In Georgia, we are living through a crisis of care that Republicans have carefully constructed. Georgia’s maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the country and even worse for Black women. Currently, 46% of births in Georgia are covered by Medicaid, yet Georgia lawmakers refuse to expand it.

Meanwhile, rural hospitals are closing while politicians funnel millions into fake clinics that are designed to lie and deceive pregnant people. On top of that, Republican lawmakers in Congress have passed legislation that will gut our access to care even further. This is not just a policy failure; it’s by design.

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Adriana’s story is part of an undeniable pattern. Amber Nicole Thurman died after being denied critical care during a miscarriage. Candi Miller, a young Black mother, was criminalized for seeking help after complications. All three of these Black women sought care in a medical system that didn’t put their needs first. These Black women didn’t simply fall through the cracks — the foundation of our health care system intentionally shifted beneath their feet.

Peach State lawmakers should have done more to protect women

Credit: GoFundMe.com

Doing this work and leading reproductive freedom efforts in Georgia means carrying these stories into every conversation with lawmakers, every strategy session and every rally.

This year, Georgia lawmakers had the chance to make different choices. They could have passed the Reproductive Freedom Act to restore access to abortion.

They could have passed the Pregnancy Center Fraud Prevention Act to stop deceptive advertising by anti-abortion centers.

They could have redirected public money from misinformation to maternal health through the End Public Funding of Misinformation Act and the Fund Healthy Pregnancy and Parenting Resolution.

Instead, they blocked these bills from being heard and made it harder for advocates to share their stories.

The Georgia Department of Public Health disbanded the Maternal Mortality Review Committee after Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller’s deaths were reported.

They cut off the truth while Black women keep dying. If 90% of maternal deaths are preventable, then every delay, every silence, every blocked report is a choice that costs lives.

We asked for protection, for progress, for action. Our elected officials ignored us.

Every action we take tells lawmakers to stop treating our lives like political theater.

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As a voter, your voice, your vote and your engagement matter now more than ever. What we’re fighting for is bigger than one policy or one election. We are fighting for our freedom. Adriana’s story is a tragedy and a policy choice.

We have the power to choose differently.

I mourn Adriana Smith. I am outraged. And the most important way to honor Adriana’s life, and the lives of every Black woman harmed by these policies, is to make sure it never happens again.

Alicia Stallworth is the director of Georgia campaigns for Reproductive Freedom for All.

About the Author

Alicia Stallworth