Alaska Surrogate and California Parents Fight Over Newborn's Heart Surgery in Texas Court

A newborn boy is recovering from open-heart surgery in a Dallas hospital while his surrogate mother and the couple who hired her fight over who gets to raise him.

The baby, born last Wednesday, has hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare defect where the left side of the heart doesn't fully develop. The couple who contracted for his birth, Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar of California, named him Rumi. His surrogate, McKenna West, a nurse from Alaska, calls him Gabriel. Both names are used across the coverage, depending on whose side is talking.

The basic facts aren't seriously disputed. Ahmed and Gilkar hired West last August through a surrogacy agency. A 20-week anatomy scan revealed the heart defect. West and the intended parents agree that West initially went along with a plan to terminate the pregnancy, according to a filing her lawyers submitted in Alaska state court and reported by CNN. West even made the abortion appointment herself, that filing states.

What happened after that is where the two sides diverge sharply.

West says Ahmed and Gilkar pressured her into the abortion and wouldn't commit to providing life-saving care if the baby were born anyway, according to court documents cited by CNN. Ahmed and Gilkar say West cut off contact with them after agreeing to the termination, then traveled to Texas instead, according to the couple's account in Alaska court filings.

Texas doesn't allow abortion past six weeks except in narrow medical emergencies. West arrived in the state as her pregnancy progressed, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton intervened in Dallas County to keep the baby from being moved out of state after birth, according to Paxton's office. A Dallas County judge issued an emergency order the day of the birth requiring "medically indicated stabilizing and life-sustaining care" and barring anyone from delaying it, per the court order Paxton's office released.

The order also appointed a guardian ad litem, Susan Dueslar, for the child.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights got involved too, sending letters to UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children's Medical Center of Dallas reminding them of federal disability rights law, according to Fox News reporting cited by Breitbart. That law bars hospitals from withholding treatment based on judgments that a disabled person's life has less value, HHS told Fox News.

Ahmed and Gilkar's attorney, Lee Budner, disputes the narrative that his clients tried to block treatment. He told the Texas Tribune the couple "immediately agreed to surgery" once Rumi was born and says West "continues to assert baseless claims for custody" in violation of court orders in both Alaska and California. Budner says the couple is focused on their son's health, not the custody fight West is still pursuing.

Lila Rose, founder of the anti-abortion group Live Action, which is backing West and paid for her travel to Texas, isn't buying it. "I don't understand how they can be trusted," Rose told the Texas Tribune, arguing the parents' earlier actions show they didn't have the baby's best interests at heart.

Paxton withdrew from the case Wednesday once it was confirmed the baby had received medical care, according to the Texas Tribune. West, represented by the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, is still pushing for custody in Dallas court, even though the parents already consented to the first of three surgeries the baby will need.

The surrogacy contract itself included a clause letting the intended parents request termination in writing if a doctor found a fetal abnormality, with West agreeing in advance to honor that request, according to the agreement attached to an August 10 Dallas County filing. That's a standard clause in commercial surrogacy contracts. The dispute here is whether West can be legally bound by that clause once she changed her mind mid-pregnancy, and whether a state can override the contract entirely once the surrogate crosses its border.

Surrogacy attorneys warn this case could have consequences far beyond one family. Christine Andresen of Austin's CHA Law Group told the Texas Tribune the case raises a bigger question: "how much power do we give the state over our private families?" Other surrogacy law specialists cited by the Texas Tribune say a ruling for West could weaken termination clauses nationwide and make couples wary of using Texas surrogates at all, since a surrogate could theoretically relocate to a state with stricter abortion laws mid-pregnancy and override the contract.

Anti-abortion activists have leaned into calling the baby "Gabriel" rather than his given name Rumi, using the case to advance both fetal personhood arguments and a broader, growing push against commercial surrogacy, according to CNN's coverage. The case is being used as a proof point in two separate legal fights: surrogacy contract enforceability and fetal personhood, which don't necessarily rise or fall together.

No trial date has been set. The custody question remains unresolved in Dallas County court, and Rumi is still in critical condition, according to Budner's most recent update to the Texas Tribune. He faces two more heart surgeries in the coming years regardless of who wins.