Adriana Smith and Gory Georgia

Say Her Name: Adriana Smith

They are still referencing The Handmaid Tale when all of the horrors of fiction happen in real life to us, but this is far from fiction and far from new. This is Fascism in Jim Crow’s hood. It is cloaked in Georgia’s LIFE Act, it is lowering its disguise. The LIFE Act in Georgia is realizing some of America’s worst nightmares, and now, unfortunately, Adriana Smith shares in that cost. The price of these policies is human lives. 

It would be easier to agonize over abortion bans if we could make memorials and monuments out of our friendships in 2025; but we are not afforded grainy photos or marble statues to honor life “pre-” or “hard to access” Roe. Instead, we have to put words to the feelings of looking at pictures of us, of our group chats, our hairstyles, our favorite lip combos. We are watching as we travel from our home states, or quietly die inside of them. We are living through a deeper, more intimate, collective trauma. Abortion bans have led us to a reality where we are being asked to witness forced birth by any means necessary. And we are expected to comply and silently bear witness, dead or alive.

With the spirit of Henrietta Lacks, whose body was also taken, used, and commodified without consent, gently holding us up; with the chilling generational fears passed down from ancestors to us about being enslaved even after we die; we unwaveringly stand behind the family of Adriana Smith in defense of autonomy and choice, dignity and respect, and for Black women who continue to be the testing, and then the proving grounds for the medical industry. The fact remains that  Adriana’s family hadn’t been given a choice.  They have not been allowed to grieve and celebrate their daughter, their mother, their sister, their cousin, their partner. And if she can not be here, not just to consent to the use of her body, but especially to share her laughter and joy, then the last thing we should be doing is explaining why she deserves to pass on into being an ancestor.


How do we say: she should be here, but also, she should be allowed to rest in peace? How do we prepare to watch a woman’s value be reduced to an incubator and as she’s forced through pregnancy for the next 11 weeks. Just to then give birth possibly against the wishes of her family and herself? Her family describes this as torture. How do we turn this to action? 

We talk of hope with militant devotion. But how do you hope in a way that aligns with your values in a country that will harvest you if the law demands it? 

How do we fight back against this level of blind, seething power inexplicably designed to crush us? We take cover and we do it together.

Together, we shield ourselves and each other by calling on you to fund abortions FOR THE LIVING. Uplift local efforts to resist abortion bans in state and nationally, too. And perhaps, most sacred of all, we ask you to shield yourselves and each other by doing the hard work, we must remember and we must say their names:

Adriana Smith
Amber Nicole Thurman
Candi Miller
Porsha Ngumezi
Neveah Crain
Josseli Barnica

From Gory Georgia to Bloody Texas, we remember, resist, and, most importantly, RISE.