Surrogate Sued For NOT Aborting Baby

A surrogate mother refused to end a pregnancy after doctors found a serious heart defect in the baby, gave birth in Texas instead, and now the baby’s biological parents are suing her for more than $100,000.

Story Snapshot

McKenna West, a nurse from Alaska, served as a gestational surrogate for a California couple, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed.
Doctors found the fetus had a serious heart defect around 20 weeks into the pregnancy.
West says the couple pressured her to end the pregnancy; the couple denies asking her to do that.
West gave birth in Texas, and the couple now has custody and is suing her for breach of contract.

A Heart Defect Diagnosis Sets Off a Cross-Country Fight

West, a 28-year-old nurse from Anchorage, agreed to carry a baby for the Los Angeles couple under a paid surrogacy contract. Around 20 weeks into the pregnancy, an ultrasound showed the baby had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a defect that leaves the heart’s left side underdeveloped. The condition usually requires several surgeries after birth and carries an 80 to 85 percent survival rate nationally.

West says the intended parents pressured her to end the pregnancy once they learned of the diagnosis, pointing to a contract clause that allowed termination for fetal abnormalities. She refused, saying she could not go through with ending a pregnancy in her own body. Gilkar and Ahmed deny ever asking her to get an abortion, flatly contradicting the claim at the center of her case.

West then left Alaska, where late-term abortion providers are scarce, and traveled to Texas, a state where abortion law would not enforce a contract’s termination clause. She gave birth there in August, weeks before her due date, and named the boy Gabriel. A Texas court quickly stepped in to make sure hospitals provided him the medical care he needed.

Court Orders Now Favor the Biological Parents

A California court had already ruled West holds no legal or physical custody rights over the child, according to court documents cited by the Associated Press. The couple also got a restraining order barring West from seeing or holding the baby after birth. Their attorneys argue her move to Texas hurt the child by pulling him away from the court that was already handling the case.

Gilkar and Ahmed have now filed a lawsuit demanding more than $100,000, arguing West broke the surrogacy agreement by refusing the abortion and giving birth outside the contract’s home state. The surrogacy company that arranged the deal is separately fighting West’s own lawsuit, which accuses the company of threatening her with steep financial penalties if she didn’t go along with the abortion request.

A Legal System With No National Rulebook

Surrogacy law in America has no single federal standard. Every state writes its own rules on parentage, contracts, and abortion clauses, which is exactly why West’s move to Texas carried so much weight. Legal experts warn cases like hers could push couples away from using surrogacy in states where courts might side with the surrogate over the paperwork she signed.

🚨The biological parents who demanded an ab*rtion are now suing the surrogate who refused to k*ll the baby!!

McKenna West, a 28-year-old nurse and surrogate, carried a pregnancy for Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed.

Around 20 weeks the baby was diagnosed with hypoplastic left… pic.twitter.com/5mB04Q7aee

— Blue Lives Matter (@bluelivesmtr) August 20, 2026

Whatever the courts eventually decide about the money or the custody fight, this case lays out a blunt truth about commercial surrogacy contracts. Paperwork can promise a lot, but no signature can force a woman to end a pregnancy against her will. That clash between contract law and a mother carrying a child isn’t settled by one ruling in Dallas, and it won’t be the last time it lands in court.