An Alaska surrogate who gave birth to a child with a rare heart defect in Texas asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the multistate legal battle over who has parentage and custody rights over the boy.
Anchorage nurse McKenna West asked the high court to pause a California court order from last month ruling the child's genetic parents — Los Angeles couple Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed — have legal parental authority, and West does not, according to a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday.
West fled from Alaska to Texas in July to give birth to the child after his genetic parents asked her to have an abortion. West argues under Texas law she is the legal parent because she gave birth to the child. She also argues Ahmed and Gilkar didn't properly serve her notice of the parentage case they opened in California court, violating West's due process rights.
"The California courts stripped away (West's) rights to the child she carried for 37 weeks as she fought to save his life from those who sought him dead," West's attorneys wrote in the petition.
West's request for a pause comes after Dallas judge Ashley Wysocki dismissed West's bid for custody over the child earlier this month, upholding the California court's order. Wysocki previously kept in place a temporary restraining order barring West from seeing the child after a hearing Aug. 25 pending a final ruling.
Wysocki also ordered the court records in the Dallas case to be sealed from public view after a request from the court-appointed attorney for the child.
Gilkar and Ahmed named the child Rumi, but West and her legal team refer to the newborn as Baby Gabriel. As of Aug. 25, the newborn was in the hospital in critical condition awaiting further treatment after he received the first open heart surgery to treat his hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
West says the baby could be taken back to California for hospice care around Sept. 17, according to the petition.
"Without a stay, (Gilkar and Ahmed) may halt life-saving care for Baby G. before this Court can even consider a petition" to review the case, West's attorneys wrote. "The resulting harm cannot be redressed on later review if Baby G. does not live to see it."
Gilkar and Ahmed have denied refusing medical care for their son. Gilkar called West "unstable."
"She has no right," Gilkar testified through tears in Dallas court. "She's making us run from doctor to doctor, state to state with our baby. She's trying to take him."
West, Gilkar and Ahmed entered into a surrogacy agreement last year in which West agreed to terminate the pregnancy at the genetic parents' request if doctors detected a fetal abnormality. The fetus was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome in April, about 20 weeks into West's pregnancy.
Gilkar and Ahmed requested West have an abortion. West scheduled at least two different appointments to get the abortion, but she testified in court last month that she couldn't go through with the procedure.
West alleges Gilkar and Ahmed then further pressured her to get an abortion. Gilkar, who also testified, said she and her husband pivoted to finding medical care for their unborn son once West refused an abortion.
But West then withheld medical records from the couple, Gilkar testified, and did not inform them of her move to Texas ahead of time. West made the move because Dallas hospitals could provide life-saving care for the child, and she had a support system here, she said. West also connected with anti-abortion organizations, including Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton soon intervened in the case, asking a judge to issue an emergency order requiring doctors to provide the boy "stabilizing and life-sustaining" care upon his live birth. Paxton withdrew from the case after the child was born Aug. 12 and doctors performed the Norwood procedure, the first of three open-heart surgeries needed to treat his heart defect.
The newborn had breathing problems and received a blood transfusion after the surgery, Gilkar testified.
West wrote in a New York Post op-ed that the genetic parents committing to providing life-saving care for the child was "all it would take to end" the litigation, but later backtracked, saying in court she would continue the case. Although Gilkar testified she and her husband would continue pursuing surgery for the boy, West's testimony indicated she didn't believe them.
West still doesn't, according to Wednesday's petition, because Ahmed and Gilkar are still challenging the order Paxton obtained in Dallas court.
"If successful, they will be permitted to do what the Texas Attorney General thus far prevented them from doing: decline to provide Baby G. with any further care," the filing reads.
Still pending is West's lawsuit in Alaska asking a trial court to deem her the child's legal parent.
Toluwani Osibamowo is KERA's law and justice reporter. Got a tip? Email Toluwani at tosibamowo@kera.org.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
Copyright 2026 KERA News