The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to intervene in the custody battle between an Alaska surrogate and a California couple over a baby born in Texas with a heart defect.
Without issuing an opinion, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied Alaska surrogate McKenna West's emergency application for the court to pause a California court's order declaring husband and wife Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed the legal parents of a newborn boy to whom West gave birth last month.
Kagan is the justice assigned to oversee appeals from California and other west coast states.
West fled to Texas to give birth to the child months after Gilkar and Ahmed — the boy's intended parents — requested West get an abortion after doctors detected a rare fetal heart defect.
This story is developing and will be updated.
Copyright 2026 KERA News