The iWoman Report: Questions about abortion laws arise in Georgia, NYU champions women's health, and AI threatens women's jobs

Brain-Dead But Still Pregnant: A Georgia Woman’s Case Reignites Debate Over Abortion, Personhood, and Racial Justice

A devastating medical case in Georgia is capturing national attention, exposing the complex and painful consequences of abortion restrictions in a post-Roe v. Wade America.

Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old Black nurse and expectant mother, was declared brain dead in February. Yet for more than 90 days, her family has been forced to keep her on life support. Not for her own recovery, but to sustain the fetus she was carrying.

They believe this outcome was not driven by medical necessity or ethical consensus, but by Georgia’s strict abortion law, the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, which recognizes fetal personhood and bans most abortions after six weeks. As Adriana’s story spreads, it is forcing a reckoning across medical, legal, and racial lines, raising fundamental questions about bodily autonomy, medical ethics, and who gets to make decisions when a person can no longer speak for themselves.

At the heart of the case is a chilling dilemma: Who has the right to decide when a brain-dead pregnant patient is kept alive solely for the fetus? Under Georgia law, abortion is banned once a fetal heartbeat is detected which is typically around six weeks. But the law’s vague language, particularly around exceptions and medical discretion, has left hospitals like Emory Healthcare fearful of violating it.

Although the Georgia Attorney General’s office has stated that removing life support in Adriana’s case would not constitute an illegal abortion, Emory has so far chosen to maintain life support likely as a legal safeguard. This decision reflects a broader trend across the country, where physicians and hospitals err on the side of caution to avoid the threat of prosecution. And this caution often results in the death of a woman.

Medical professionals now find themselves in an impossible bind: honor ethical standards and the wishes of the family or follow restrictive and unclear laws that may criminalize care. Doctors are no longer deciding care based on what is best for their patients but based on fear of losing their ability to practice medicine.

A major factor driving the case is Georgia’s embrace of fetal personhood, the idea that fetuses, and even embryos, possess certain legal rights from conception. This concept, embedded in the LIFE Act, underpins the state’s aggressive approach to abortion and reproductive care.

Critics warn that recognizing fetal personhood turns pregnant people into legal vessels of the state, effectively overriding the personhood of the fully formed human the fetus is residing in. In Adriana’s case, her own status as a person has been legally eclipsed by the fetus she carries. Her family, who should have been empowered to make medical decisions on her behalf, has been sidelined.

Legal scholars say this case may set dangerous precedents that extend far beyond abortion, with possible implications for in vitro fertilization (IVF), child custody, and even tax law. If a fetus is a person in the eyes of the state, what rights does that create in the law’s eyes?

From Survivor to Changemaker: Allison Mignone’s $50M Gift to Transform Women’s Health at NYU Langone

After surviving an aggressive form of breast cancer, philanthropist Allison Mignone is turning her personal health journey into a powerful force for change. In partnership with her husband, Roberto Mignone, Allison has donated $50 million to launch the Mignone Women’s Health Collaborative at NYU Langone Health, an ambitious initiative that aims to revolutionize how women’s health is delivered, studied, and understood.

With additional support of $10 million from Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel, the new center will dramatically expand access to comprehensive, integrated care for women of all ages. The initiative seeks not only to address the medical needs of women but also the emotional, social, and systemic gaps that have long plagued women’s health care.

Mignone’s decision to invest in women’s health is deeply personal. After being diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat forms of the disease, she experienced firsthand the fragmented nature of women's healthcare. From navigating complex diagnoses to dealing with the emotional toll of treatment, Mignone found that comprehensive, empathetic care was not always easy to access.

Rather than accepting the status quo, she chose to create a new model that centered on integration, empathy, and evidence-based treatment.

The Mignone Women’s Health Collaborative is designed to be a one-stop hub for women’s health, bringing together 125 providers across 20 specialties under a single, coordinated care model. Services will span from primary care and gynecology to trauma counseling and menopause support.

A key feature of the collaborative will be the Griffin Healthspan and Vitality Center, focused on helping women stay healthy, active, and resilient as they age. This includes nutrition coaching, stress management therapy, wellness classes, and caregiver burnout support, all resources rarely offered in traditional healthcare settings.

For decades, women have been underrepresented in clinical trials and underserved in diagnosis and treatment. Heart disease symptoms in women, for example, are often misinterpreted, and autoimmune diseases frequently go undiagnosed for years. By educating future physicians to recognize these discrepancies and listen more carefully to women’s experiences, the Mignone initiative aims to close a long-standing gap in medical equity.

With a transformative investment and a mission rooted in lived experience, the Mignone Women’s Health Collaborative represents a bold reimagining of women’s care, one that treats the whole person, not just the diagnosis. It is a testament to how philanthropy, when informed by personal struggle and guided by systemic insight, can reshape not just institutions, but lives.

As the collaborative prepares to open its doors, it brings with it a message of hope: that through innovation, education, and compassion, a better future for women’s health is possible and closer than we think.

AI Is Changing the Workforce, But Women Are Being Left Behind

As artificial intelligence continues to transform the global job market, a new report is sounding the alarm on a growing digital divide. According to research from the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO) and Poland’s National Research Institute, women’s jobs are at significantly higher risk of AI-driven disruption than men’s, raising urgent questions about gender equity in the age of automation.

The report finds that roles traditionally held by women are among the most vulnerable to automation. This includes administrative and clerical positions, precisely the jobs AI excels at: managing schedules, organizing data, drafting documents, and processing forms. While AI presents opportunities to augment rather than replace work, a persistent gender gap in AI adoption threatens to leave women behind in the next chapter of the workforce.

In high-income countries, nearly 10% of jobs held by women are classified as highly vulnerable to AI automation. That compares to just 3.5% of jobs held by men, the ILO report shows. This disparity stems from longstanding patterns of gendered labor. Women are overrepresented in clerical, secretarial, and administrative roles, professions where AI can automate repetitive, rule-based tasks with little need for human oversight.

Without proactive retraining, skills development, and workforce inclusion strategies, experts warn that AI could deepen existing inequalities. This risk is particularly concerning in economies where automation accelerates faster than labor protections can adjust tacking on another disadvantage for women.

Despite the threats, many experts argue that the future of work doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. AI doesn’t have to replace jobs, but it can enhance them.

For example, AI can help a clerical worker quickly analyze large data sets, prepare client briefings, or manage workflows more efficiently, thus potentially opening the door to promotions or transitions into more technical or leadership roles.

However, this future isn’t guaranteed. It requires intentional design from employers, educators, and policymakers to ensure AI serves as a ladder, not a trapdoor.

Organizations must foster inclusive environments where learning new tools is encouraged, mistakes are safe, and diverse perspectives are welcomed. Companies can also take steps to track AI adoption by gender, offer bias-free training programs, and ensure women are part of the teams designing and deploying AI systems in the first place. Without this intentional inclusivity, AI could further entrench power imbalances.

The rise of artificial intelligence marks a critical turning point for the global workforce. While it offers opportunities to streamline work, boost productivity, and unlock new kinds of careers, it also risks reinforcing historic inequalities. For women, especially those in roles at high risk of automation, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The path to an inclusive solution lies in how people in leadership roles design the future of the workforce.