by Steven Ertelt, Life News
The California couple who requested that their surrogate mother abort their unborn son after a prenatal diagnosis of a severe but treatable heart defect have taken custody of the newborn boy less than 24 hours after his birth in Texas.
McKenna West, an Alaskan nurse and single mother of two, served as the surrogate for Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed of Los Angeles.
At 20 weeks, the little baby was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare condition that requires a series of surgeries beginning in the first weeks of life but is treatable.
According to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who intervened in the case, Gilkar and Ahmed requested an abortion upon learning of the diagnosis. A clause in the surrogacy agreement allowed the biological parents to have the baby killed in an abortion if an “anomaly” were found. West refused and traveled to Texas before giving birth so that she would be recognized as the birth mother under state law.
She named the boy Gabriel and he was born Wednesday morning in Dallas.
A California court had already ruled that Gilkar and Ahmed are the legal parents.