Couple sue surrogate mother who refused to abort baby

A couple from California are suing their baby’s surrogate mother after demanding that she have an abortion after the baby was found to have a heart defect. She refused and went on to give birth to a boy who is receiving medical care.

McKenna West was acting as a surrogate for Nausheed Gilkar and Omar Ahmed when the baby was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) at 20 weeks gestation. HLHS disrupts the heart’s ability to pump oxygen-rich blood around the body, which can then cause breathing problems. It requires a number of surgeries after birth and can result in lifelong complications.

Gilkar and Ahmed told West to abort the baby, but she fled from Alaska to Texas where she was able to get specialist care for the child. ‘Baby Gabriel’ was born on 12th August after the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, obtained an emergency court order requiring that the child receive “life-saving medical care” that “will not be delayed.” In his court order, Paxton said that following the baby’s birth “he will be a complete legal person, and Texas will protect his life without regard to the circumstances of his conception or the terms of any private agreement.”

Gilkar and Ahmed are now suing West for $100,000 for breaching her contract to carry the baby. They had agreed to pay her $60,000 to do so, with a clause that they could ask her to abort the child if there were any issues. According to their lawyer, Gilkar and Ahmed “had frequently sought involvement in the medical process and had made the [abortion] decision, which they felt was best for the baby.” He went on to say that the couple were “continuing to place their baby’s health and well-being first” and are “devastated to see their family tragedy transformed into political theater”.

In Texas, the state law means that West would be recognised as the child’s birth mother. However, within 24 hours of the baby being born, Gilkar and Ahmed had been granted complete decision-making authority over the child, who they have named Rumi. They are scheduled to appear in court next week for a custody case where West intends to fight to become the baby’s legal parent. West’s lawyer said that they “are working on challenging those orders of parentage because we think that Texas law makes a woman who gives birth to a child the mother of the child.”

West told the New York Post, “Every life matters. No woman should be forced to end the life of the baby she is carrying — including me … Baby Gabriel should receive a chance at life”. Gilkar and Ahmed are now with the child who remains in hospital receiving life-saving care, and have obtained a temporary restraining order against McKenna West.