Surrogate mother and cardiac nurse McKenna West refused demands to abort the baby she was carrying after doctors diagnosed a serious heart defect, relocated to Texas to deliver him, and is continuing a multi-state legal fight to ensure the infant receives ongoing lifesaving treatment.
In a new heartfelt column at the New York Post, West expresses why she has fought so hard for Baby Gabriel.
West, a 28-year-old nurse from Alaska, agreed last year to serve as a surrogate for a California couple, Nasheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed. In April, when she was 20 weeks pregnant, a routine ultrasound showed the baby had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a congenital condition in which the left side of the heart is underdeveloped.
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“To treat a baby with HLHS, surgeons perform a staged repair, beginning with the Norwood procedure shortly after birth, followed by two more surgeries. This medical treatment gives children a high chance of going on to live full lives,” West wrote.
The contracting couple ordered her to terminate the pregnancy – code for killing the baby.
West refused. “No woman should be forced to kill the baby inside her. Most importantly, every child deserves a chance to live,” she said.
As a cardiac nurse, she knew the child “had a great shot at survival if given the opportunity to receive the necessary treatment.”
After she declined to end Gabriel’s life, the couple cut off payments and their lawyers threatened six-figure penalties. They later sued her in Alaska seeking at least $100,000 for not aborting.
“The threats eventually became real,” West wrote. “But 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.”
West said her only request was a commitment that the baby would receive the surgeries needed to survive. When that commitment was not given, she researched hospitals and moved with her two children to Texas, selecting a facility with a 100 percent survival rate for the Norwood procedure. She gave birth on August 12.
The baby, whom she named Gabriel (the biological parents call him Rumi), underwent the Norwood procedure earlier this week.
“I’m eternally grateful that the Texas family court and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered that the baby boy I carried must receive the necessary surgery,” West wrote.
West insists the battle is not political theater. “This is about giving an innocent child a shot at the life he deserves,” she wrote. “I’m not fighting to try to take someone else’s baby. I’m fighting because this baby boy needs someone willing to advocate for and fight alongside him as he gets the ongoing treatment his fragile heart requires.”
She has not been allowed to hold the infant beyond a brief moment while the umbilical cord was still attached.
West declared: “Every life matters. No woman should be forced to end the life of the baby she is carrying — including me … Baby Gabriel should receive a chance at life.”
Her attorney, Lincoln Wilson, said the biological parents “haven’t given [West] anything since she declined to terminate the pregnancy.”
Under Texas law, he noted, the woman who gives birth is recognized as the mother. West is seeking parentage with legal help from Alliance Defending Freedom and has asked only for a commitment that the baby will receive the care his heart requires.
Attorney Lee Budner, representing Gilkar and Ahmed, said the infant is “recuperating under the loving care of his parents and his heroic team of doctors, nurses, and medical staff.”
He called West’s parentage claims “baseless.”
The biological parents have stated in court filings that they respected her decision not to abort and denied any intent to withhold treatment.
The legal disputes continue in multiple states.
