Surrogate Mother Fighting to Save Baby with Treatable Heart Condition from Biological Parents Trying to Force Her to Abort

 

An Alaska nurse and single mother is in a legal battle to protect the life of the baby she is carrying after the biological parents demanded she abort the child following a diagnosis of a severe, but treatable, heart condition.

McKenna West, who agreed in September to serve as a surrogate through Worldwide Surrogacy Specialists to help make ends meet while raising her two children, underwent a routine anatomy scan in her 20th week of pregnancy in April.

Doctors diagnosed the boy, whom she has named Baby Gabriel, with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition in which the left side of the heart is underdeveloped. 

While serious, the defect is treatable with surgery performed shortly after birth. Newborns who undergo the procedure have a 75 percent chance of surviving to age five, and those who reach their first birthday have a 90 percent chance of living to 18 and beyond.

The biological “parents,” identified in court papers only as A.B. and C.D. and residing in California, invoked an “abortion on demand” clause in their surrogacy contract and ordered West to terminate the pregnancy.

When Alaska doctors refused to perform the late-term procedure, the couple demanded she travel to Seattle for the abortion and threatened to sue her for $250,000 if she refused, which would financially cripple the single mother. 

West was appalled at the prospect of a procedure that would stop the baby’s heart and involve dismemberment, so she refused.

She offered to assume full responsibility for Gabriel and absolve the parents of all financial and custodial obligations, but they rejected the proposal.

She later offered to renounce any parental rights if the couple would commit to the life-saving surgeries, but they declined that as well.

Instead, they have discussed palliative care that would allow the infant to die after birth instead of giving him the lifesaving surgery.

West subsequently left Alaska for Texas, seeking a hospital with specialized pediatric cardiac capabilities, and has filed legal actions in an effort to secure custody and ensure the baby receives treatment.

The biological parents are fighting in Alaska Superior Court and the California Second District Court of Appeal to compel her to give birth in California and to assert their parental rights.

They accuse West of distorting the medical reality and of being motivated by money, noting her refusal to undergo amniocentesis.

West has told the New York Post 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.”

The baby is due on September 3.