A baby born with a severe heart defect is in critical condition as a bitter legal battle continues between a pro-life surrogate who refused to abort him and genetic parents who demanded the pregnancy be terminated.
The newborn, whom surrogate McKenna West named Gabriel and his genetic parents named Rumi, was placed back on a breathing tube after his condition deteriorated following open-heart surgery, according to court documents obtained by TMZ.
In a Dallas courtroom Tuesday, the genetic parents Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed told a judge they were reeling after West defied their demand to get an abortion and traveled to Texas, where she sought legal protection and medical care for the baby.
“He’s our child,” Gilkar said, according to The Associated Press, which reported that the California woman wiped away tears on the witness stand. Referring to the surrogate sitting across the courtroom, Gilkar added, “She’s unstable. She’s trying to take him from us.”
Jeff Domen, an attorney for West, repeatedly pressed Gilkar about her desire to terminate the pregnancy after the baby was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, or HLHS.
“Would you trust somebody to care for your child that wanted your child dead?” Domen asked.
Gilkar said she did not know how to answer.
West, an Alaska nurse and single mother of two, delivered the baby earlier this month in the Dallas area after Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a court order requiring that he receive life-saving medical care.
The baby was diagnosed at 20 weeks with HLHS, a serious congenital heart defect. West has said that after learning of the diagnosis, the genetic parents demanded that West travel to California to abort the child, The Daily Wire previously reported.
West told the judge she scheduled an abortion at 23 weeks at the couple’s urging but ultimately could not bring herself to 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 told the court.
West also described the “terrifying” prospect of undergoing an abortion.
“It would have been a two-day procedure … they would have injected his heart with a solution that would stop it,” West testified, saying the baby would have been removed two days later. “It was terrifying.”
The surrogacy agreement at the center of the dispute contains a provision giving the genetic parents broad authority to request that West abort the baby.
The child later underwent complex heart surgery, the first of three surgeries needed to treat HLHS. Since then, the baby’s condition has taken a turn for the worse.
“He’s struggling to breathe … We have to watch him gasp for air and choke on tubes,” Gilkar said, according to the New York Post.
Beyond the custody fight, the California couple is reportedly seeking a six-figure cash award from West, accusing her of “malicious conduct” by refusing to terminate the pregnancy and breaching the surrogacy agreement.
Gilkar and Ahmed have claimed they suffered emotional distress throughout the ordeal, which has captivated attention from pro-life activists and members of the Trump administration.
West previously said having the baby could cost her up to $200,000 — a price she was willing to pay.
“This is my body, and I absolutely don’t want to go through this. Nothing was scarier than questioning my own soul and knowing what would happen to this baby boy,” she told Live Action. “His life doesn’t have a price tag on it. There’s nothing that they could try to come after me for that would be worth his life.”
The Dallas judge on Tuesday extended for another two weeks a temporary restraining order barring West from making medical decisions for the baby. The judge did not issue a final custody ruling.
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