Surrogate Claims Bio Parents Pressured Her To Abort Sick Baby
Black Surrogate Claims Biological Parents Pressured Her To Abort Baby With Heart Defect — Now The Newborn’s Fight For Survival Has Everyone Taking Sides
McKenna West, the surrogate, has alleged that the baby's biological parents repeatedly pressured her to terminate the pregnancy after learning of his HLHS diagnosis. Here's what we know.
Source: Photo courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom. / McKenna West
A baby with a serious heart condition who became the center of a multistate legal dispute involving his surrogate underwent surgery, according to NBC Newsand The Tribune,ABC News. The surrogate, McKenna West, gave birth to Rumi in Texas on Aug. 12, after traveling from her home state of Alaska to safely deliver the child.
Baby Rumi is in surgery for his HLHS.
Rumi was diagnosed in utero with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a rare congenital heart defect in which the left side of the heart is underdeveloped. On Aug. 17, Rumi underwent a Norwood procedure, “a complex palliative heart surgery,” Lee Budner, the attorney representing Rumi’s biological parents, Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar, said in a statement, according to NBC News.
“Rumi is now recuperating under the loving care of his parents and his heroic team of doctors, nurses, and medical staff,” Budner said in a statement.
The Norwood procedure is the first of three surgeries generally required during the first several years of life for babies with HLHS, Budner said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the procedure is typically performed within the first two weeks of a baby’s life. During the surgery, doctors create a “new” aorta and connect it to the right ventricle. They also place a tube connecting either the aorta or the right ventricle to the pulmonary arteries, allowing the right ventricle to pump blood to both the lungs and the rest of the body.
The surgeries do not cure HLHS but are intended to improve blood flow and restore heart function.
“This is the last update on Rumi’s health that his family intends to share,” Budner said. “His condition remains critical and complex, and his family seeks privacy in caring for their son on his long road to recovery.”
McKenna West Vs. Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar: What’s this dispute about?
The dispute surrounding Rumi began during West’s pregnancy. West has alleged that Ahmed and Gilkar repeatedly pressured her to terminate the pregnancy after learning of the baby’s heart condition.
In a response filed in Alaska, an attorney for Ahmed and Gilkar alleged that West was “clear and knowing in her intention to abide by” the parents’ request for a termination if testing revealed a fetal abnormality.
West traveled to Texas to safely deliver baby Rumi due to the state’s limited abortion access. The procedure is severely restricted following the passage of strict abortion bans after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The state’s laws impose significant criminal and civil penalties on doctors who perform abortions, with exceptions generally limited to situations involving the life of the pregnant patient or serious impairment.
Before Rumi was born, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, an anti-abortion Republican who is running for the U.S. Senate, intervened in the dispute and filed a motion asking a Texas court to order doctors to perform surgery on the baby. Paxton alleged that the biological parents might refuse to provide Rumi with lifesaving medical care, an allegation the parents have denied.
The parents’ attorney accused Paxton of turning the family’s situation into “political theater” and said Ahmed and Gilkar had always prioritized the health of their baby.
According to ABC News, Texas family law recognizes the person who gives birth as the legal mother. West has argued that, because of that provision, she should have the authority to make medical decisions for Rumi. Ahmed and Gilkar, however, maintain that a California court recognized them as the child’s legal parents and that they should therefore have authority over his medical care.
Paxton’s office obtained an emergency order allowing Rumi to remain in Texas and permitting hospitals and medical providers to treat him even without parental consent. A separate Texas court order temporarily prevented West from making medical decisions for the baby, reinforcing the legal position of Gilkar and Ahmed.
Budner, the attorney for Rumi’s biological parents, criticized Paxton’s involvement in the case.
“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,” Budner said.
McKenna West claims she was forced to abort the child. Parents have denied the allegation.
West was matched with Ahmed and Gilkar through Worldwide Surrogacy Specialists, LLC, a family-planning center based in Connecticut, according to Lincoln Wilson, an attorney representing West who spoke with the Tribune on Aug. 12.
According to the Tribune, the relationship between West and the biological parents was going well until Rumi was diagnosed with HLHS at 20 weeks’ gestation. West’s attorney told the Tribune that Ahmed and Gilkar attempted to force West to have an abortion, which she found to be “fundamentally offensive.”
“She described it as fear 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,” Wilson said.
“The parents’ legal team denied that Gilkar and Ahmed forced her to have an abortion. In court documents filed July 20 in Alaska, the birth parents said West agreed with the decision to terminate,” the Tribune noted.
What’s next?
In an interview with Megyn Kelly last week, West said she felt “trapped” because the surrogacy agreement allowed the biological parents to choose to terminate the pregnancy.
A California court recognized Gilkar and Ahmed as the legal parents of the child, according to court documents filed in Alaska on July 27. An appellate court subsequently denied West’s request for a stay in the case.
A hearing on Paxton’s order is scheduled for Aug. 25.
