The Baby Born At The Center Of A Surrogate Dispute Is Now The Subject Of A Custody Battle
McKenna West gave birth to a baby boy on Wednesday, but she was not allowed to have any contact with him She plans to fight for custody.
Black News 
This week, we reported on the strange and complicated case of Alaskan resident McKenna West and the California couple she served as a surrogate for, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed. The three adults ended up in a legal battle over West’s refusal to terminate a pregnancy, which the couple wanted done after learning that the baby would be born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a serious heart condition that would require a series of surgeries and other treatments for the baby to survive. But West wouldn’t go through with the abortion, and on Wednesday, she gave birth to a baby boy in Texas, but as we noted earlier, that birth does not end the legal dispute, which is now a custody battle. For now, the baby has been given to the biological parents.
According to CBS News, attorney Lee Budner, who represents Gilkar and Ahmed, said in a statement Thursday that his “clients’ son was born yesterday morning and he is now in their physical custody while he receives expert medical care at a tertiary care center.”
“Thankfully, McKenna West’s baseless attempt to interfere with his medical care has been soundly rejected by the courts,” the statement continued. “Right now, our clients are continuing to place their baby’s health and well-being first, following the advice of the baby’s medical team, as they always have and just as any loving parent would.”
West’s attorney, Lincoln Davis Wilson, told CBS News on Wednesday, the same day his client gave birth, that West was not allowed any contact with the child after his birth, and that she will continue to fight for custody of the child she named Gabriel. Gilkar and Ahmed say his legal name is Rumi, according to ABC 7.
“I felt like, when the diagnosis was made and the decision to end his life was made, that it was selfish,” West said in an interview with the anti-abortion organization Live Action while she was 35 weeks pregnant, ABC reported. “Even though he is not biologically mine… he knows me and to him I am his mother.”
Of course, that would be a difficult claim to continue making now that West has given birth, and the baby has been given to the biological couple before she ever had a chance to take him home.
Still, as I noted in my previous post, this is a complicated case with too much nuance to assign terms of right and wrong to anyone without judging an unfathomable situation that, ultimately, only three adults and one small child are personally impacted by, which, of course, hasn’t stopped pro-life activists, and politicians like Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, from making West their new poster child.
It’s a hard situation for everyone involved. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all shakes out.
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Surrogate Gives Birth To Baby Biological Parents Wanted Aborted
