The parents embroiled in a custody dispute with their surrogate have launched a fierce new attack on the woman who refused their request to abort their critically ill baby.
Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar accuse 28-year-old surrogate McKenna West of “fabricating” an emergency and placing their son’s medical care at risk.
The allegations appear in a new filing before the US Supreme Court, as the bitter, multi-state legal battle over their five-week-old son reaches the nation’s highest court.
Their attorneys claim West has embarked on a “publicity tour,” made false statements about the baby’s healthcare and pursued legal action that could ultimately threaten his treatment.
The extraordinary counterattack follows West’s request that the Supreme Court block a California ruling recognizing Ahmed and Gilkar as the legal parents of the desperately ill newborn. The couple call him Rumi, while West refers to him as Gabriel.
West carried the child as the couple’s gestational surrogate but declined to end the pregnancy after doctors diagnosed him before birth with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, or HLHS.
The potentially fatal congenital heart condition leaves the left side of the heart severely underdeveloped, disrupting normal blood flow. It generally requires several major surgeries beginning soon after birth, and even with treatment, affected children may face serious lifelong complications.
West is seeking custody or conservatorship, saying she fears the couple may refuse to authorize lifesaving treatment.
Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed say they have remained fully committed to obtaining lifesaving medical care for their desperately ill son
Surrogate McKenna West, 28, carried the baby but refused to terminate the pregnancy after learning he had a serious congenital heart defect
Baby Rumi is shown surrounded by medical equipment and monitors while receiving intensive hospital treatment for his severe congenital heart condition
Ahmed and Gilkar have strongly denied the accusation.
In Friday’s filing, their lawyers argued that granting West’s request for an emergency stay would “endanger rather than safeguard” Rumi by creating uncertainty over who has the authority to approve his medical treatment.
“McKenna West fabricated an emergency,” attorney Adam Wolf said in a statement accompanying the filing.
“If the Supreme Court were to grant the application for an emergency stay, it would threaten Rumi’s ability to receive necessary healthcare, further stacking the deck against him. It’s time to stop playing politics. A child’s life is at stake.”
The parents’ attorneys also criticized West’s public campaign surrounding the extraordinary custody dispute.
“While McKenna West has been conducting a publicity tour, Rumi’s parents have been quietly caring for their child and following the recommendations of Rumi’s medical team,” attorney Lee Budner said.
Budner said pausing the California parentage ruling would not automatically make West Rumi’s parent, but could create dangerous uncertainty for the doctors treating him.
“A stay would not change who Rumi’s parents are,” he said. “It would only create confusion over medical decision-making authority and jeopardize the providers’ ability to rely on the parents’ consent to Rumi’s treatment.”
The tiny five-week-old lies among tubes, wires and breathing equipment after major heart surgery, as the bitter legal fight over his future continues
West, center, has taken the extraordinary custody battle to the US Supreme Court, seeking emergency intervention in the fight over the baby’s parentage and care
West and her attorneys have repeatedly pushed for the surrogate to have decision-making authority over the baby, who has remained in his biological parents’ care since he was born on August 12
‘No parents should face such uncertainty and confusion regarding their child’s life.’
The escalating war of words follows months of extraordinary legal maneuvering stretching across California, Alaska and Texas.
West entered a gestational surrogacy agreement with Ahmed and Gilkar before the pregnancy.
But everything changed when Rumi was diagnosed in April with HLHS.
Ahmed and Gilkar acknowledge that they initially wanted the pregnancy terminated following the devastating diagnosis.
West scheduled an abortion appointment but ultimately decided she could not go through with it.
‘I knew that this baby, despite the diagnosis, had a great chance at survival and a great chance at leading a long life,’ West later told a Texas court.
The couple have denied forcing her to have an abortion and say that after she changed her mind they began preparing for their son’s extensive medical needs.
The relationship nevertheless collapsed.
West traveled from Alaska to Texas in July and eventually gave birth there on August 12.
Ahmed and Gilkar rushed from California to Texas after learning she was going to be induced.
West claims she is not fighting to ‘try to take someone else’s baby,’ but instead advocating for a child to get the ‘ongoing treatment his fragile heart requires’
Rumi required intensive medical care from birth and has already undergone major heart surgery.
Photographs released by his parents this week show the tiny infant surrounded by medical equipment with a surgical scar running down his chest.
At an emotional August court hearing, Gilkar broke down while describing her fight to become a mother following eight unsuccessful rounds of IVF and a hysterectomy.
‘He’s our child,’ she said through tears. ‘We’ve never wanted anything more than this baby.’
Gilkar also rejected West’s suggestion that the couple would deny their son lifesaving care.
‘Denying lifesaving care is not true,’ she told the court. ‘We are devastated.’
West has continued to argue that she should have legal authority to protect the child and has taken her fight all the way to the Supreme Court.
Her lawyers have argued that the California parentage judgment was imposed without adequate due process and that she was subsequently shut out of the Texas case concerning the infant.
Her Supreme Court application warned that without intervention, Ahmed and Gilkar could halt lifesaving treatment before the justices even had the opportunity to consider her case.
The parents have now turned that argument on its head.
West is in the midst of a legal battle with California couple Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed after she refused to abort their child, who was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect while in utero
Their attorneys say Ahmed and Gilkar have followed the recommendations of Rumi’s doctors and have been a constant presence at the hospital.
On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court cleared the way for the couple to take their son from Texas to Los Angeles, where they live, after concluding that the evidence did not cast doubt on their commitment to obtaining appropriate medical treatment for him.
West’s legal campaign has received backing from Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative Christian legal advocacy organization that has been involved in major legal battles over abortion, religious freedom and LGBTQ+ rights.
Meanwhile, Ahmed and Gilkar are pursuing a separate lawsuit against West in Alaska alleging breach of contract and emotional distress. Those allegations remain unresolved.
Rumi’s parents have now launched a GoFundMe to help pay for surgeries, medication, therapy, hospital stays, travel and other costs associated with his treatment.
