California couple sue surrogate mother for $100,000 after she refused to abort baby

A couple in California are suing a surrogate mother for more than $100,000 after she refused to abort their baby when they asked her to. The couple, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, agreed to pay McKenna West, a 28-year-old cardiac nurse from Alaska, $60,000 to carry their child.

At around 20 weeks, they found out that the unborn baby had been diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a severe birth defect where the left side of the heart is too small, meaning it can’t pump blood around the body effectively.

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When they got the diagnosis at a routine ultrasound, they asked West to terminate the pregnancy. However, she refused and travelled to Texas to give birth to the baby. The infant was born on 12th August, and West has named him Gabriel, but the biological parents claim his name is Rumi.

For the last few months, the biological parents and surrogate mother have been stuck in a legal battle which began when the couple filed a suit in Alaska to establish them as the baby’s parents after West stopped contact with them in May. West then sued them to try and stop the proceedings, and asked an Alaska judge to give her custody of the child. 

In the latest update, Gilkar and Ahmed are suing West for more than $100,000 in damages, alleging that she breached their surrogacy agreement and used “malicious, outrageous conduct,” the lawsuit obtained by TMZ reveals. They allege that there was an abortion clause that allowed them to terminate the pregnancy if there were any serious medical issues.

West denies any wrongdoing and has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, Fox News reports. Rumi has already had a palliative heart operation this week called a Norwood procedure, which is the first of three operations he will need to treat his heart condition. 

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In an article in the New York Post, the surrogate mother addressed the reasons she chose not to have an abortion, and is “fighting” for the infant.

“It is unthinkable to me to give birth to a precious, living, breathing baby boy and yet deny him the chance to survive,” she claimed. “As a cardiac nurse, I knew this little one had a great shot at survival if given the opportunity to receive the necessary treatment.”

In response to the $100,000 lawsuit, she alleged: “No threat or amount of money could sway my conviction that this baby had a real chance at a full life, and I could not participate in killing him and depriving him of that opportunity. All I wanted was for the contracting couple to commit to giving this baby lifesaving treatment. But they refused.

“So, I made my own plans to save him. My home state didn’t have a hospital equipped with the surgery he’d need at birth. After extensive research, I found a hospital in Texas with excellent surgical outcomes, including a 100% survival rate for the Norwood procedure. I also had friends in the area who could support my kids and me through this difficult time.”

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