A surrogate from Alaska who rejected a California couple’s request to terminate a pregnancy has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step into an escalating custody fight over the baby, now 4 weeks old, who was born with a severe congenital heart condition.
McKenna West filed an emergency appeal Wednesday as the case draws attention from Republican officials and anti-abortion organizations amid broader debates over surrogacy, parental rights and abortion. West, an Alaska resident, traveled to Dallas to deliver the baby in August; Texas bans most abortions.
In her filing, West is seeking to block a California court order recognizing Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar as the child’s legal parents. West refers to the baby as Gabriel, while Ahmed and Gilkar call him Rumi. She is asking for permanent custody or conservatorship, arguing that the couple may not pursue life-saving medical treatment because they previously sought an abortion at 23 weeks.
The infant was born Aug. 12 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a dangerous condition that restricts normal blood flow through the heart. He underwent surgery shortly after birth. An attorney for the couple said in August that the newborn was in critical condition and appeared to be “suffering from potential complications.”
Surrogacy law is handled state by state, with no comprehensive federal framework, often creating legal gray areas when disputes cross jurisdictions. The Supreme Court is not required to take up West’s request.
West is barred from any contact with the baby
Ahmed and Gilkar have not yet responded to the Supreme Court filing. They have previously accused West of breaching the surrogacy agreement and secured a restraining order barring her from seeing or holding the child.
During an Aug. 25 hearing in Dallas, Gilkar described West as unstable and told the court she believed West was attempting to take the baby from them.
“He’s our child,” Gilkar said through tears.
West and her attorneys argue that Gilkar and Ahmed are not committed to guaranteeing the baby will undergo surgeries or “life-saving care.”
Both sides were publicly silent after the hearing last month and the case file was sealed, but West’s Supreme Court filing says she lost her plea in Texas to win conservatorship of the child.
The Texas court granted full credit to the California judgment on Sept. 2, according to the filing.
The odds of the Supreme Court granting the appeal are low, said Marla Neufeld, an attorney who represents parents, surrogates and donors but who isn’t involved in this case. Emergency relief is usually extraordinarily difficult to obtain and the Supreme Court doesn’t usually get involved in family disputes, she said.
West believes the baby’s life is in danger
“The stakes of the decisions below are enormous,” West’s lawyers wrote in her plea to the Supreme Court, asking that she be recognized as the mother under Texas law. “But because of the unlawful California judgment, she has been dismissed with prejudice from the Texas proceedings and denied any information about or control over the medically fragile child.”
West believes Ahmed and Gilkar plan to put the baby into hospice care in California rather than let him undergo surgery that could save his life, according to the filing.
Without treatment, hypoplastic left heart syndrome can lead to death within days or weeks. Surgical repairs are not necessarily cures and additional surgeries or heart transplants may be needed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The couple has said they will not provide any updates to West about the child’s condition, the filing states.
