Supreme Court declines to intervene in custody battle of surrogate mom who refused abortion
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to intervene in a custody battle between a surrogate mother and a California couple whom she accuses of wanting her to abort the baby she was carrying.
On Tuesday, Justice Elena Kagan denied, without a written explanation, a request from McKenna West’s attorneys asking the nation's highest court to step into the case.
West, a single mother from Anchorage, Alaska, has been fighting Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar of California for custody of her newborn, who was born with a serious heart defect in Texas.
Ahmed and Gilkar entered into a surrogacy contract with West that required her to abort the child if it had any fetal abnormalities.
A male embryo was implanted in West last December. In April, a 20-week anatomy scan found that the unborn child had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare birth defect in which the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped.
Because the couple did not want to raise a child with that condition, they discussed aborting the baby. However, West found a facility in Texas that could treat the child after birth.
West alleges that the couple pressured her, citing the surrogacy contract, but she refused to have an abortion. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a court order requiring that the baby receive “medically indicated stabilizing and life-sustaining care” after birth.
After West gave birth in Texas in August, Ahmed and Gilkar obtained a restraining order barring her from seeing or holding the child, whom the couple named Rumi.
Ahmed and Gilkar have also sued West for $100,000 in damages over an alleged breach of agreement. They are also seeking unspecified damages for “malicious, outrageous conduct.”
On Sept. 9, West’s attorneys filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to temporarily pause, or stay, a California court order recognizing Ahmed and Gilkar as the child’s legal parents. The filing refers to the child as Baby G.
“A stay is needed to preserve the status quo and ensure M.W. [McKenna West] can advocate for her rights and remain informed about Baby G. during this critical time in his young life,” the application stated.
“Without a stay, [Ahmed and Gilkar] may halt life-saving care for Baby G. before this Court can even consider a petition for certiorari, much less rule on the merits. And that can happen before M.W. gets word of anything.”
A petition for certiorari is a formal request asking the Supreme Court to review a lower court’s decision.
