{"id":655149,"date":"2026-08-20T16:13:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T16:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=655149"},"modified":"2026-08-20T16:13:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T16:13:18","slug":"surrogate-refuses-to-abort-baby-with-heart-condition-now-the-parents-want-six-figures-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=655149","title":{"rendered":"Surrogate refuses to abort baby with heart condition \u2014 now the parents want six figures"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A California couple who\u2019d recruited a surrogate to give birth to their son has filed suit against the surrogate over her \u201coutrageous conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

As previously reported, California couple Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar paid McKenna West to give birth to their newborn.<\/p>\n

But when Ahmed and Gilkar discovered a couple of months ago that their then-unborn baby had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, they asked West to get an abortion. She refused and instead traveled to Texas, a red state, to give birth to the boy last Wednesday, Aug. 12.<\/p>\n

West then named the boy Gabriel instead of what Gilkar and Ahmed wanted, which was Rumi, according to TMZ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A surrogate mother defied the biological parents\u2019 order to abort a baby diagnosed with a severe heart defect.<\/p>\n

The woman, McKenna West, has now given birth to the baby, Gabriel.@Kerri_Kupec<\/a> says baby Gabriel is in a Texas NICU, where doctors could soon perform potentially\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/wFyGkXByRH<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Fox News (@FoxNews) August 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The California couple has since sued West.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the suit, Nausheen and Omar are asking a judge to award them more than $100K in damages from McKenna for breaching the deal \u2026 plus unspecified damages for the \u2018malicious, outrageous conduct\u2019 they believe she committed,\u201d TMZ reported.<\/p>\n

In the suit, they reportedly also admit to having paid McKenna a whopping $60,000 for her surrogacy. More importantly, the couple notes in the suit that their surrogacy contract included an abortion clause which should have allowed them to terminate West\u2019s pregnancy.<\/p>\n

The suit further alleges that the California couple has suffered emotional distress because of West\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

West, in the meantime, is preparing her own legal battle in an attempt to gain custody of the newborn.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is seeking parentage of the child because she gave birth in Texas, and in Texas, if you give birth to a child, it\u2019s your child,\u201d her attorney, Lincoln Wilson, told the New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wilson also alleged that the California couple \u201chaven\u2019t given [West] anything\u201d since she declined to abort the newborn.<\/p>\n

As for West\u2019s desire to gain custody, her chances remain low because she has virtually no legal claim on the child, according to Florida attorney Marla Neufeld.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see any reason why these biological parents wouldn\u2019t still be the legal parents of this child,\u201d Neufeld told the Post. \u201cI don\u2019t see a world where [West] has rights to the baby. She is not the biological parent \u2026 and under the states that are at play \u2014 between Alaska, California and Texas \u2013 I\u2019m not aware of anything in their surrogacy provisions that would give her access to the child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [West] is taking a position that is just so unfounded. I don\u2019t know if she bonded with the child in a way that created this type of issue, but she has no legal right to name the baby,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the Post notes that less than 24 hours after the newborn was born, he was automatically placed in the custody of his biological parents.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, both Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and even the Trump administration have also been involved in this case.<\/p>\n

Before the newborn was born, Paxton secured a court order requiring that he receive life-saving medical care after birth:<\/p>\n

\n

I secured an emergency court order ensuring that baby Gabriel receives life-saving care in Texas. pic.twitter.com\/Yv84BFoFi7<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) August 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe court has made the right decision in immediately acting to protect baby Gabriel\u2019s life and ensure he receives the care he deserves,\u201d Paxton said in a statement. \u201cMy office utilized every tool at our disposal to protect life, and we will not back down in continuing to support baby Gabriel\u2019s well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration quickly followed suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 Office for Civil Rights [said] it is sending a letter to Children\u2019s Medical Center of Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center outlining their obligations under federal disability civil rights laws as doctors make treatment decisions involving baby Gabriel,\u201d according to Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The California couple didn\u2019t appreciate this intervention.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur clients\u2019 son was born yesterday morning and he is now in their physical custody while he receives expert medical care at a tertiary care center,\u201d their attorneys said in a statement. \u201cThankfully, McKenna West\u2019s baseless attempt to interfere with his medical care has been soundly rejected by the courts. Right now, our clients are continuing to place their baby\u2019s health and well-being first, following the advice of the baby\u2019s medical team, as they always have and just as any loving parent would.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs if the heartbreak of his condition were not enough, they are devastated to see their family tragedy transformed into political theater by the Texas Attorney General\u2019s office and McKenna West. Our clients\u2019 only focus at this time is ensuring that their baby receives the medical care that he vitally needs and that they, as his parents, are able to spend every precious moment they can with their beautiful newborn son,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A California couple who\u2019d recruited a surrogate to give birth to their son has filed suit against the surrogate over her \u201coutrageous conduct.\u201d As previously reported, California couple Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar paid McKenna West to give birth to their newborn. But when Ahmed and Gilkar discovered a couple of months ago that their… Continue reading Surrogate refuses to abort baby with heart condition \u2014 now the parents want six figures<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":655140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-655149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment","category-national-security","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=655149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/655140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=655149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=655149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=655149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}