A baby with a heart defect at the center of an extraordinary surrogacy battle between a pro-life surrogate and biological parents, who sought an abortion, has undergone his first life-saving surgery.
The child, whom his parents named Rumi, underwent complex heart surgery Monday to treat hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a serious congenital heart defect that typically requires three surgeries.
Lee Budner, an attorney for the parents Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar, said a medical team determined that the baby was eligible for the Norwood procedure, the first of three surgeries typically performed on babies born with HLHS. Babies with the condition typically undergo a second operation at 4 to 6 months of age, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
“Rumi is now recuperating under the loving care of his parents and his heroic team of doctors, nurses, and medical staff,” the family’s lawyer told CBS. “This is the last update on Rumi’s health that his family intends to share. His condition remains critical and complex, and his family seeks privacy in caring for their son on his long road to recovery.”
The surgery comes after the biological parents who sought to abort the baby following its HLHS diagnosis, the latest twist in a stunning surrogacy battle that has drawn attention from pro-life advocates to the Trump administration.
McKenna West, a single mother of two, delivered the baby last Wednesday in the Dallas area after Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a court order requiring him to receive life-saving medical care. She named him Gabriel.
At 20 weeks, the baby was diagnosed with HLHS. West has said that after learning of the diagnosis, his biological parents demanded that West travel to California to abort the child, The Daily Wire previously reported.
“So we were all really upset. It was completely unexpected. Everything had been going great,” West, who became pregnant through IVF, told Live Action News. “I was full of fear and stress of what they were going to choose. I was feeling pretty confident that they were going to choose termination, and how could I possibly live with myself going through that?”
West refused the abortion demand and fled to Texas, where abortion is mostly illegal, and the state law recognizes the woman who carries and gives birth to a child as the “gestational mother.”
Most surrogacy contracts include provisions giving the intended parents a say in whether to terminate a pregnancy. Surrogate.com says surrogates cannot be forced to undergo an abortion, but refusing to comply with a contractual agreement could carry “financial and legal consequences.”
West says having the baby could cost her $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 Lila Rose, president and founder of 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.”
In court filings, Gabriel’s biological parents accused West of initially agreeing to terminate the pregnancy before reversing course, The Daily Wire reported.
“It is undisputed that West initially agreed and that she herself made the initial appointment. She then unilaterally changed her mind, cut off all contact with A.B. and C.D., and withdrew medical releases allowing A.B. and C.D. to have contact with all medical providers,” the filing said.
A Dallas judge granted the biological couple’s request for a temporary restraining order against West and blocked her from making any medical decisions for the child she was carrying.
Lincoln Wilson, an attorney for West, told The Texas Tribune that his client “is lawfully the parent because she gave birth to this child that she carries in Texas, then she should control custody as well.”
A court hearing is scheduled for August 25.
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