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By Giulia Carbonaro
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An Alaskan surrogate is locked in a legal battle with a Californian couple who asked her to abort their unborn child after it was diagnosed with a heart defect.
McKenna West, an Alaskan nurse and single mother of two, has traveled to Texas to ask for legal protection. She became a surrogate with the Worldwide Surrogacy Specialists agency to round up her earnings and "make ends meet" without sacrificing time with her children, according to court documents.
She was matched with the Californian couple, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, and became pregnant with "Baby Gabriel" in December 2025. In April, she underwent an anatomy scan in her 20th week of pregnancy and was told the baby had a serious heart condition, hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS).
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Newsweek contacted Worldwide Surrogacy, West's lawyers and lawyers for the biological parents for comment by email on Wednesday morning.
What Is Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome—and Is It Treatable?
HLHS is a type of congenital heart defect that prevents normal blood flow through the heart.
It occurs when the left side of the heart does not form correctly during a pregnancy and, while treatable, is a serious condition that requires surgery as soon as possible after birth. If untreated, the condition causes symptoms such as problems breathing, fast heart rate, weak pulse, and ashen or bluish skin a few days after birth.
A baby diagnosed with HLHS must undergo multiple surgeries in a particular order, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to help the right ventricle become the main pumping chamber for blood to reach the body.
These are surgeries a child with HLHS must undergo:
1. Norwood procedure
This surgery is usually done within the first two weeks of a baby's life. Surgeons create a "new" aorta and connect it to the right ventricle. A tube is placed from either the aorta or the right ventricle to the vessels supplying the lungs so that the right ventricle can pump blood to both the lungs and the rest of the body.
According to the CDC, this is "a very challenging surgery." A mix of oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood would make the baby look bluish.
2. Bi-directional Glenn shunt procedure
When an infant diagnosed with HLHS is about 4 to 6 months old, they have to undergo a second surgery to create a direct connection between the pulmonary artery and the superior vena cava.
3. Fontan procedure
Between the age of 18 months and 3 years, another surgery is performed to connect the child's pulmonary artery and the inferior vena cava, the vessel that returns oxygen-poor blood from the lower part of the body to the heart.
This allows the rest of the blood coming back from the body to go to the lungs, according to the CDC. At this point, the child's skin would no longer look bluish from the mix of oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood.
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While helping increase blood flow to the body, these surgeries are not a cure. According to the CDC, "infants with HLHS may have lifelong complications. They will need routine checkups with a heart doctor to monitor their progress."
If the infant's heart weakens during surgery, they might need a heart transplant, after which they would need to take medicines all their lives.
The causes of the diseases are unknown, but a combination of genes and other risk factors may increase the risk for HLHS. According to the CDC, about 925 babies in the U.S. are born with HLHS each year.
How HLHS Case Became Multistate Legal Battle
After the prenatal diagnosis, the Californian couple asked West to abort the baby in line with the "abortion-upon-demand clause" of their surrogacy agreement, according to court documents West filed.
Doctors in Alaska refused to perform the "high-risk, late-term" abortion, the lawsuit said, and the biological parents asked for West to travel to Seattle for the procedure.
However, West refused to abort the baby, saying in her lawsuit that its heart condition can be treated.
She suggested the biological parents "simply cut ties" with her and the baby, saying her brother had offered to adopt it once born. The Californian couple responded by threatening to sue her for $250,000 if she did not abort the baby, according to West's lawsuit.
The couple also tried to establish their parental rights on the unborn child, filing a petition for parentage in California that West said breached the terms of the surrogacy contract, which says that any legal proceedings should occur in Alaska.
A complex legal battle involving the Alaska Superior Court, the California Second District Court of Appeal and a Dallas District Court in Texas has followed.
Without receiving reassurance that surgery would be performed on the baby once born, West relocated to Texas and filed for custody for the child so she could allow doctors in the Lone Star State to perform surgery on "Baby Gabriel" once born. Under Texas family law, anyone who gives birth in the state is recognized as the legal mother of that child.
The biological parents filed a lawsuit demanding West give birth in their home state, but they have not told her whether the child will receive treatment for HLHS. The couple has argued that the case has been wrongly portrayed as solely about abortion and bodily autonomy, while their parental rights are being ignored.
The Alaska Superior Court has ruled that California has jurisdiction over the birthplace of the baby West is carrying.
What Happens Next
"Baby Gabriel" is due in early September, according to reports citing both September 2 and September 3 as due dates. A crowdfunding campaign on GiveSendGo launched by a friend of West to help her with her legal fight has exceeded its goal of $40,000.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump who is running for the U.S. Senate, said on Tuesday night that he had secured an emergency order to support West, stopping anyone from refusing any necessary treatment and from removing the baby from Texas while the lawsuit is pending.
"Baby Gabriel deserves a chance at life, and I will not allow anyone to unlawfully deny him medically necessary care," Paxton said in a news release. "My office will use every tool available to protect innocent lives and ensure that every child receives the care required under Texas law." Newsweek has contacted Paxton's office for comment.
The Texas attorney general has requested that UT Southwestern and Children's Medical Center Dallas provide care when the baby is born.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Tobias Meyjes and Shakeema Edwards.
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