A surrogate mother has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a custody dispute over a 4-week-old child born with a serious heart defect, after refusing the intended parents' request to terminate the pregnancy. McKenna West, the surrogate, filed an emergency appeal Wednesday. The legal battle over surrogacy and abortion has garnered support from Republican officeholders and anti-abortion groups.
West traveled to Dallas to give birth in August, as most abortions are banned in Texas. She is now seeking to halt a California court order that recognizes Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar as the parents of the child, whom West refers to as Gabriel and the couple calls Rumi. West desires final custody or conservatorship, expressing concern that the couple will not provide life-saving care, citing their earlier request for an abortion at 23 weeks.
The infant was born Aug. 12 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition that impairs normal blood flow to the heart. The child underwent surgery shortly after birth. An attorney for the couple stated in August that the newborn was in critical condition and experiencing potential complications.
Surrogacy is not subject to federal regulation, and varying state laws can create ambiguities. The Supreme Court is not obligated to hear the case.
Ahmed and Gilkar have not yet responded to the Supreme Court filing. They previously accused West of violating the surrogacy contract and obtained a restraining order preventing her from contacting the child. During a court hearing in Dallas on Aug. 25, Gilkar described West as unstable and attempting to take their baby. "He's our child," Gilkar said.
West and her legal team contend that Gilkar and Ahmed are not committed to ensuring the baby receives necessary surgeries or "life-saving care." Following the August hearing, both parties remained publicly silent, and the case file was sealed. However, West's Supreme Court filing indicates her attempt to gain conservatorship in Texas was unsuccessful, and the Texas court granted full credit to the California judgment on Sept. 2.
Marla Neufeld, an attorney not involved in the case, stated that the likelihood of the Supreme Court granting the appeal is low, noting that emergency relief is exceptionally difficult to obtain and the Supreme Court typically does not engage in family disputes.
West's lawyers argued in their plea that "the stakes of the decisions below are enormous." They are asking the Supreme Court to recognize her as the mother under Texas law, asserting that the California judgment has excluded her from Texas proceedings and denied her any information about or control over the medically fragile child.
According to the filing, West believes Ahmed and Gilkar intend to place the baby into hospice care in California rather than allow him to undergo potentially life-saving surgery. Hypoplastic left heart syndrome can be fatal within days or weeks without treatment, and surgical repairs may require subsequent procedures or transplants, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The filing also states that the couple has declined to provide West with updates on the child's condition.