Surrogate who refused abortion over heart defect takes custody battle to US Supreme Court
She fled to Texas where abortions are illegal and now wants custody of the four-week-old baby.
Surrogate who refused abortion over heart defect takes custody battle to US Supreme Court
McKenna West, the surrogate, has sought custody of the child after giving birth against the couple’s wishes.
A surrogate who rejected requests from the parents who hired her to terminate the pregnancy has asked the US Supreme Court to step into the dispute over who should have custody of the baby.
McKenna West submitted an emergency appeal asking the court to pause a prior ruling that awarded parental rights to California couple Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar.
Ahmed and Gilkar had asked West to end the pregnancy after a scan at 20 weeks revealed the foetus had a severe heart.
Instead, West — who has received support from several Republican officials — went to Texas, where nearly all abortions are illegal, and gave birth to the child.
Since then, West has been seeking custody of the baby, who was born last month with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a defect in which the left side of the heart cannot pump enough blood to the body.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the condition often requires several surgeries and is not cured by them. Infants with the condition can face lifelong complications.
After West went to the state, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton entered the case and secured an emergency court order requiring that the boy receive medical care in the state. He underwent surgery soon after birth.
In the Supreme Court filing, West said she refused the couple’s requests for an abortion after learning about treatment options and wanting to keep "this precious baby".
West has argued that the biological parents should not have custody because she fears they would not provide the boy with the medical care he needs, given that they sought to abort the child after learning of the life-threatening condition.
At a previous court hearing, Gilkar said the baby — whom they named Rumi — was "our child" and "the love of our lives", according to the Associated Press. They said West went to Texas without informing them and cut off their access to medical information.
A California court previously granted parental rights to Ahmed and Gilkar, while a Texas court issued a restraining order preventing West from seeing the baby.
Last month, a lawyer for the California couple said the child was in critical condition and appeared to be "suffering from potential complications".
West said that without Supreme Court intervention, she would lose access to information about the child’s medical condition. In the filing, West’s lawyers suggested that the California couple could place the child in hospice care.