Surrogate Seeks Supreme Court Help in Custody Fight

Alaska surrogate McKenna West has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a custody dispute involving a baby born in Dallas with hypoplastic left heart syndrome after she refused the intended California parents’ request for an abortion at 23 weeks. West, who calls the child Gabriel, seeks custody or conservatorship and argues that Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar may not provide the multiple surgeries and other life-saving care he needs; the couple, who call him Rumi, says he is their child and has accused West of violating the surrogacy agreement. The baby underwent open-heart surgery shortly after his Aug. 12 birth, while Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton secured an order requiring medical treatment and keeping him in Texas during the proceedings. California courts recognized Ahmed and Gilkar as the parents, a Texas judge later dismissed West from the case, and a restraining order bars her from seeing or holding the child. The dispute has drawn support from Republican officials and anti-abortion groups, but the case is sealed, surrogacy is governed by state law, and the Supreme Court is not required to hear West’s emergency appeal.