Surrogate Seeks Supreme Court Help in Custody Fight

Alaska surrogate McKenna West has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a custody and medical-care dispute involving a California couple’s four-week-old baby, whom she calls Gabriel and the couple calls Rumi. West continued the pregnancy after the couple allegedly requested an abortion at 23 weeks because the fetus had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a life-threatening condition requiring specialized care. The baby was born in Dallas on Aug. 12, underwent open-heart surgery and remains medically fragile. West seeks custody or conservatorship, arguing the couple may not ensure the child receives necessary treatment, while the couple says she violated their surrogacy agreement and defends its parental rights. Texas courts have rejected or dismissed West’s custody claims, the couple is recognized as the child’s legal parents, and it obtained a restraining order barring West from seeing or holding the baby; West’s attorneys say she was excluded from proceedings and lacks access to information about the infant. The case is sealed in Texas, and the Supreme Court is not required to hear the emergency appeal, which highlights conflicts among state surrogacy laws, parental rights and abortion-related questions.