The biological parents of Baby Gabriel, whose surrogate mother McKenna West refused to abort him following the discovery of a serious heart condition, are seeking more than $100,000 in damages from her.
According to Life News, Nasheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed filed a countersuit against West, a 28-year-old nurse from Alaska, several weeks before she gave birth to their son in Texas on August 12.
West had agreed to carry the couple’s child under a surrogacy contract for $60,000. The agreement contained an abortion clause that permitted the biological parents to end Gabriel’s life if problems with the baby arose during the pregnancy.
At approximately 20 weeks, Gabriel was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare and life-threatening congenital heart defect in which the left side of the heart does not develop properly.
Following the diagnosis, Gilkar and Ahmed asked West to have an abortion. She refused their request and subsequently travelled to Texas, where state law recognises the woman who gives birth as the child’s mother.
West gave the baby the name Gabriel, while his biological parents maintain that his name is Rumi.
Gilkar and Ahmed are now seeking more than $100,000 from West for allegedly breaching their agreement. They are also pursuing unspecified additional damages over what their lawsuit describes as her “malicious, outrageous conduct.”
West’s attorney, Lincoln Wilson, said the couple stopped providing her with support after she rejected their request for an abortion.
“They haven’t given [West] anything since she declined to terminate the pregnancy.”
Wilson also explained the basis of West’s attempt to establish legal parentage of the child. “She is seeking parentage of the child because she gave birth in Texas, and in Texas, if you give birth to a child, it’s your child,” Wilson said.
West has alleged that the California couple repeatedly put pressure on her to have an abortion after Gabriel’s heart condition was discovered.
Defending her decision to continue the pregnancy, West said in a statement: “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.”
On Monday, Baby Gabriel underwent a Norwood procedure, a complex form of palliative heart surgery. The procedure is typically the first of three operations performed on infants born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.