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Surrogate Refuses Abortion Request as Legal Dispute Over Baby’s Care Heads to Court

West wants the court to overturn a California parentage order as she argues she needs access to the newborn’s medical decisions.

  • Alaska surrogate McKenna West asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to intervene in a multistate custody dispute over the medical care of a newborn she carried for California couple Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar.
  • The conflict began after a 20-week anatomy scan revealed the fetus had a heart condition; Ahmed and Gilkar sought to terminate the pregnancy, but West refused, fleeing to Texas to give birth to the child, named Rumi.
  • Representing West, attorneys from the Alliance argue that California courts wrongly stripped her parental rights, while West claims the couple refuses to provide updates on the baby's condition, which she calls Gabriel.
  • Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees appeals from the Ninth Circuit, received the emergency application; a Texas court dismissed West from the custody dispute, with the newborn potentially moving to California hospice care later this month.
  • The Alliance, known for backing the 2022 Dobbs and Jackson Women and Health Organization cases that overturned Roe and Wade, is supporting West's effort to invalidate the parentage order and influence the newborn's medical treatment.
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wfmd.com broke the news on Wednesday, September 9, 2026.
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