Supreme Court rejects custody request from surrogate who refused abortion
The US Supreme Court has rejected an emergency custody request from a surrogate who refused to end a pregnancy after the baby was diagnosed with a serious heart defect.
Justice Elena Kagan declined McKenna West’s appeal on Tuesday (22 September), leaving in place a California court ruling that recognised Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar as the child’s legal parents.
West had asked the Supreme Court to halt the ruling and give her custody or conservatorship of the baby, arguing that the couple might not provide the medical care he needs.
Her lawyers complained that, if the court denied her appeal, she would 'receive no further information about the child she carried for 37 weeks and fought to save'.
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They argued in their Supreme Court filing that the baby could be placed in hospice care if he was moved to California, while West said she wanted to remain informed about his condition and have a say in his treatment.
The appeal also points to the local law in Texas granting the birth mother of a child parental rights.
The baby, whom the couple calls Rumi and West calls Gabriel, was born in Dallas last month (12 August) with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) explains that hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a rare congenital heart defect where the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped and unable to pump blood to the body properly.
The condition requires several surgeries shortly after birth.
The dispute first began after a 20-week scan revealed the heart defect.
Ahmed and Gilkar asked West to terminate the pregnancy, but she refused and travelled from Alaska to Texas, where most abortions are banned.
West said she rejected the request after learning about treatment options and wanting to keep 'this precious baby', according to her Supreme Court filing.
She later argued that the biological parents should not have custody because she feared they would not provide the treatment she believed the baby needed.
The case has involved courts in both California and Texas.
A California court granted parental rights to Ahmed and Gilkar.
Gilkar testified (as per NBC): "She’s making us run from doctor to doctor, state to state with our baby. She’s trying to take him."
A Texas court also ruled against West's bid for custody.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton intervened in the case after the baby was born and a court ordered that he receive medical treatment, with the infant undergoing surgery shortly afterwards.
Another court order banned West from seeing the child shortly after the birth.
In court, Gilkar described the baby as 'our child' and 'the love of our lives', according to the Associated Press.
The couple said West had travelled to Texas without telling them and blocked their access to medical information.
West's lawyers
The Supreme Court's decision did not give a reason for rejecting the emergency request.
The Hill reports that Justice Kagan could have referred the case to a fill court for a vote, but opted to rule on the matter herself.
Rhiannon Ingle