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Surrogate Who Refused Abortion Asks Supreme Court to Protect Custody Rights
A surrogate mother who refused an alleged demand for a late-term abortion is asking the Supreme Court to preserve her ability to advocate for a baby with a serious but treatable heart condition.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A surrogate mother who says she refused to abort a baby diagnosed with a serious heart condition has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a custody dispute with the California couple who hired her.
McKenna West’s attorneys filed an emergency application seeking to halt a California judgment recognizing Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar as the child’s legal parents. The boy, born in Texas on August 12 with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), is called Gabriel by West and Rumi by the couple.
West alleges that Gilkar asked about abortion within minutes of learning of the diagnosis and that the couple later demanded that she undergo a late-term abortion in Seattle. West, who lives in Alaska, says she instead fled to Texas. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton subsequently obtained an order requiring the baby to receive medically indicated stabilizing and life-sustaining care.
On September 2, a Texas court granted full faith and credit to the California judgment and dismissed West from the case. Her attorneys argue that the decision improperly terminated her parental rights without constitutionally required procedural safeguards. The pro-life organization Americans United for Life has filed an amicus brief supporting West’s request for an administrative stay.
West is seeking custody or conservatorship, saying she does not trust the couple to provide life-saving treatment. After the birth, Ahmed and Gilkar obtained a restraining order preventing West from seeing or holding the child. Her attorneys warn that the baby could be transferred to California for hospice care around September 17 despite what they describe as a treatable condition.
Ahmed and Gilkar have denied that the child should be known as Gabriel and have sued West for $100,000, alleging breach of the surrogacy agreement and seeking additional unspecified damages for what they characterize as malicious conduct.
Previously, the UOJ reported that the Texas AG asked a court to protect a newborn with a treatable heart condition.
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