A surrogate traveled to Texas to give birth and claim the baby boy she gave birth to on Wednesday as her own amid a legal dispute with the child’s biological parents, who claim they all initially agreed on an abortion 20 weeks into the pregnancy after the fetus was diagnosed with a critical heart defect.
Los Angeles couple Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed contracted McKenna West, an Alaskan resident and nurse, to carry their child.
The Megyn Kelly Show Screengrab
However, the couple discovered 20 weeks into the pregnancy that the fetus was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare and critical congenital defect where the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped and unable to properly pump blood to the body.
According to Boston Children’s Hospital, a child born with the defect would usually need a series of operations to live. The CDC says that about 925 babies are born in the U.S. each year — or 1 in 3,846 babies — with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and may have lifelong complications.
West’s lawyers alleged in a press release last week that the couple invoked the contract’s forced abortion clause and threatened her with more than $250,000 in liability if she refused.
“It brought up a lot of fear, and I just didn’t know what to do,” West told Megyn Kelly last week. “I felt very trapped due to this contract and felt like I had no voice. But I knew in my soul, in my heart, that I wanted to protect this little boy.”
She traveled to Texas, where abortion is effectively illegal and the law recognizes anyone who gives birth in the state as the legal mother, to deliver the baby.
Lincoln Wilson, an attorney representing West, told the Texas Tribune that his client became fearful of the couple “because basically she was going to be asked to do something to the child that she carried that was fundamentally offensive to her, and she couldn’t imagine ending the life of the child that she carried inside her.”
Lee Budner, an attorney for Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, however, told the outlet that the couple did not force the surrogate to terminate her pregnancy, adding that West’s “baseless attempts to intervene in the child’s medical care have been soundly rejected by the courts.”
Documents filed in an Alaska court on July 20 and reviewed by the outlet alleged that West “initially agreed and that she herself made the initial appointment” to terminate the pregnancy.
The couple’s attorney told the Texas Tribune that his clients opted to see the pregnancy through to delivery.
“Our clients’ child was born earlier this morning and he is now receiving medical care provided by a team of pediatric experts,” Budner said in a statement to the outlet.
He added that the biological parents’ “only focus at this time is ensuring that their baby receives the medical care that he vitally needs and that they, as his parents, are able to spend every precious moment they can with him.”
According to the Texas Tribune, a California court established Gilkar and Ahmed as the child’s rightful parents. But Wilson claimed his client “is lawfully the parent because she gave birth to this child that she carries in Texas.”
The case gained massive attention amongst right-wingers, including MAGA loyalist Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who intervened to support West.
Paxton also notified UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center of Dallas of “their legal obligations to provide the baby with life-saving care.”
He secured an emergency order on Tuesday ahead of her delivery to prevent anyone from “withholding or obstructing necessary treatment or removing, discharging, or transferring the child while the court considers the case.”
Due to a temporary restraining order entered by the couple, West was unable to see or hold the child after giving birth.
Budner told CBS News, “As if the heartbreak of his condition were not enough, they are devastated to see their family tragedy transformed into political theater by the Texas Attorney General’s office and McKenna West.”