An acrimonious legal battle over a baby’s life that spanned three states is now over. Surrogate McKenna West gave birth to a baby boy at a Texas hospital Wednesday after traveling there to keep the baby’s legal parents from forcing her to have an abortion.
The dispute started in the spring. When West was 20 weeks pregnant, it was discovered that the fetus had a rare and life-threatening congenital heart condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome and would require multiple surgeries to survive. The baby’s legal parents, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed of California, chose to terminate the pregnancy.
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West, an Alaska native, refused to go through with the abortion and went to Texas, where the practice is banned. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stepped in on Tuesday to make sure the baby would get the lifesaving medical care it needs after birth.
A Texas court also issued an emergency order mandating that lifesaving care be provided once the baby was born. But the court also issued a restraining order against West, saying Ahmed and Gilkar are responsible for medical decisions within the requirements of the court order.
West’s lawyer, Lincoln Davis Wilson, told CBS News West was not allowed any contact with the child after birth due to the order. Wilson added that West plans to continue fighting for custody of the baby.
Not the only case
This isn’t the only surrogacy-based case to go to court recently. A Florida woman is fighting for custody of the children she birthed after she says the Chinese man who was supposed to be their parent has yet to come to get them almost two years after they were born.
Kyla Simpson gave birth to triplets in Jacksonville on Nov. 4, 2024, but the intended parent never picked them up. Simpson told First Coast News the man claimed he was trying to obtain a visa to visit the U.S. The babies, who are now 20 months old, had been living with Simpson since their birth, although one died in 2025 from RSV complications.
Fear No Fact.
About 5,500 to 7,000 babies are born via surrogacy each year in the U.S., according to CDC data.
Simpson filed to terminate the man’s parental rights in May, but in June, his attorney filed an emergency child pick-up order to remove them from Simpson’s custody. A St. Johns County judge approved that order, and the boys have been in foster care since then, according to court filings.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed an emergency motion at the end of July to prevent the boys from being allowed to leave the U.S. In the filing, Uthmeier argued the intended parent did not establish paternity under Florida law, since the initial Uniform Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act was signed in California after the children’s birth.
At the most recent hearing on Aug. 4, the judge appointed someone to legally advocate on behalf of the children. The judge will hear arguments on the motion to reconsider the emergency pick-up order and whether the California parentage order has jurisdiction in Florida on Aug. 13, according to First Coast News.
In another case, a California couple is facing multiple custody disputes and lawsuits after 21 children, mostly surrogate-born and under the age of three, were removed from their custody in July 2025. Multiple surrogates were still pregnant with or had recently given birth to babies intended for the couple at the time.
At least two of those children are now in foster care, and one is with the woman who gave birth to him, but she is not considered the baby’s parent.
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