Surrogate mother’s flight to Texas for birth praised by pro-life leaders

McKenna West wanted the child she was carrying to be born, but she was afraid the parents of the child she was carrying did not.

West, a nurse and single mother of two from Alaska, was serving as a gestational surrogate for Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed of California, when the child was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome at twenty weeks.

Gilkar and Ahmed allegedly ordered her to abort the baby boy, despite the condition being considered treatable through a series of life-saving surgeries.

West found her way to Texas, to ensure that the child she is carrying would be born.

The child was born on Wednesday and is now in the hospital and under the legal custody of Gilkar and Ahmed.

West has been commended by the state’s leading pro-life agency.

“Texas has shown yet again that it honors the dignity of surrogate mothers and unborn babies and that all lives are valuable and worthy of protection, regardless of the circumstances of their conception, diagnosis, or disability,” said Amy O’Donnell, the Executive Director of Texas Alliance for Life.

She said West’s story is not rare.

“Most surrogacy contracts include termination and selective reduction clauses,” O’Donnell told Crux