A surrogate from Alaska plans to take her custody fight to the U.S. Supreme Court after a California judge hit her with a restraining order.
McKenna West, 28, signed a surrogate agreement with a California couple to carry their unborn child. The agreement allowed the couple to terminate the pregnancy if doctors discovered an “anomaly” before birth.
At 20 weeks gestation, a scan revealed the fetus’s heart had no blood flow on the left side. Doctors diagnosed the fetus with a cardiac condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS).
West refused the couple’s request to abort the fetus.
Instead, she traveled from Alaska to Texas, where she hoped to be recognized as the legal birth mother under state law.
On Wednesday, August 12, West gave birth to a boy she named Gabriel.
However, the biological parents filed for a restraining order before the baby was born, TMZ reported.
West is not allowed to see or hold the newborn. She can’t make any medical decisions for him or take him out of the hospital.
The biological parents now have custody of the child who will soon undergo three surgical procedures.
West, a nurse and single mother-of-2, pursued surrogacy as a second stream of income.
West’s attorney, Lincoln Wilson, said the California restraining order is not legal in Texas. He said his client will take her case to the Supreme Court to be recognized as the legal mother of baby Gabriel.
“She is seeking parentage of the child because she gave birth in Texas, and in Texas, if you give birth to a child, it’s your child,” Wilson told the New York Post.
Wilson argued that the California TRO is “void” in Texas. “We think that once that California judgment is removed … that basically she is the mother under Texas law,” he said. “We are taking that challenge up through the California courts, and we’ll take it up to the US Supreme Court if we have to.”
According to TMZ, West had agreed to give the child to the biological parents if they arranged for surgery to repair the newborn’s heart defect.
However, she appears to have changed her mind and now wants to keep the baby. She is ordered to appear before a judge at a hearing on August 25.
The parents’ attorney, Lee Budner, told TMZ that the couple said their “family tragedy” has been “transformed into political theater by the Texas Attorney General’s office and McKenna West.”
A crowdfunding website has raised over $57,000 for West’s legal expenses.