A surrogacy battle playing out in Dallas is getting national attention and taking a new turn. The baby at the center of the dispute was born Wednesday, and now the fight is over who should care for him. <\/p>\n
The battle started with a surrogacy agreement and a diagnosis earlier this year that changed everything. <\/p>\n
McKenna West, an Alaska nurse, was carrying a baby for a California couple when at about 20 weeks, doctors diagnosed the baby with a serious heart defect that requires multiple surgeries. <\/p>\n
West’s attorneys say the biological parents pressured her to end the pregnancy. <\/p>\n
But West refused, sharing her story with the anti-abortion organization Live Action.<\/p>\n
“I didn\u2019t think that I could live with myself doing that,\u201d McKenna said.<\/p>\n
West later left Alaska and came to Texas, where her attorney says she found specialists who could treat the baby’s condition. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe chose that hospital because she wanted the best care for him possible,\u201d attorney Lincoln Wilson said.<\/p>\n
But the biological parents, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, dispute West’s account of what happened after the diagnosis and deny that they intended to refuse surgery once the baby was born. The battle moved into court, and on Tuesday, the State of Texas intervened.<\/p>\n
Hours later, a Dallas judge sided with the State, ordering that the baby receive life-sustaining medical care in Texas. He was born Wednesday in Dallas. <\/p>\n
The biological parents now have custody. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat means that, right now, she’s in limbo where she’s carried this child for 37 weeks, fought desperately to save his life against great challenges and a great risk to herself and now she doesn’t even get to hold, touch, see the baby at all,\u201d Wilson told NBC 5.<\/p>\n
Lee Budner, an attorney for the biological parents, said in a statement: <\/p>\n
\u201cOur clients\u2019 son was born yesterday morning and he is now in their physical custody while he receives expert medical care at a tertiary care center. Thankfully, McKenna West\u2019s baseless attempt to interfere with his medical care has been soundly rejected by the courts. Right now, our clients are continuing to place their baby\u2019s health and well-being first, following the advice of the baby\u2019s medical team, as they always have and just as any loving parent would. As if the heartbreak of his condition were not enough, they are devastated to see their family tragedy transformed into political theater by the Texas Attorney General\u2019s office and McKenna West.<\/p>\n
Our clients\u2019 only focus at this time is ensuring that their baby receives the medical care that he vitally needs and that they, as his parents, are able to spend every precious moment they can with their beautiful newborn son.\u201d<\/p>\n
West’s attorney says she wants custody of the child. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe do believe that she is the mother under Texas law because that’s what Texas law says. If you give birth to a child, you are the child’s mother,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
A California court has already ruled the baby’s biological parents are the child’s legal parents. <\/p>\n
But West’s attorney is challenging that ruling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think that judgment flagrantly violated due process. It pulled Ms. West into an expedited proceeding from 2,000 miles away on two days notice,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
Wilson says he’s prepared to take the case the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.<\/p>\n
For now, the biological parents have custody of the newborn, while West’s fight to have a role in his care continues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A surrogacy battle playing out in Dallas is getting national attention and taking a new turn. The baby…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":999548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[3789,5229,1596,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-999547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-abortion","tag-america","tag-dallas","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117091963271682039","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=999547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/999548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=999547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=999547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=999547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}