() — In a stunning turn of events, the “commissioning” parents who demanded that their hired surrogate abort their child after doctors detected a birth defect were immediately given custody of the child following his birth.
Parents Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed sued surrogate McKenna West – a nurse and Alaskan single mother of two – to prevent their son from being born alive.
“Our clients’ son was born yesterday morning and he is now in their physical custody while he receives expert medical care at a tertiary care center,” said attorney Lee Budner, who represents Gilkar and Ahmed, the parents who originally wanted their child dead.
In a statement dripping with irony, the parents’ attorney continued, calling his clients “loving parents” while denouncing West, who had sought to protect the child from the moneyed “parents” as having interfered with the baby’s “medical care.”
“Thankfully, McKenna West’s baseless attempt to interfere with his medical care has been soundly rejected by the courts,” Budner said. “Right now, our clients are continuing to place their baby’s health and well-being first, following the advice of the baby’s medical team, as they always have and just as any loving parent would.”
“As if the heartbreak of his condition were not enough, they are devastated to see their family tragedy transformed into political theater by the Texas Attorney General’s office and McKenna West,” Budner said. “Our clients’ only focus at this time is ensuring that their baby receives the medical care that he vitally needs and that they, as his parents, are able to spend every precious moment they can with their beautiful newborn son.”
Just weeks before, the “parents” considered their “beautiful son” to be nothing more than a disposable commodity, medical waste.
As reported this week by ’ Jonathon Van Maren, the child, named Baby Gabriel by his surrogate mom, was safely born on August 12 thanks to an emergency intervention by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
In February 2025, West was approved by Worldwide Surrogacy Specialists and shortly thereafter she signed a “gestational surrogacy agreement” with a couple from California, Gilkar and Ahmed. The contract included a clause that permitted the couple to demand an abortion in the case of a “fetal anomaly,” a common practice in the surrogacy industry.
In December 2025, West became pregnant; in April, ultrasounds revealed that the child, called Baby Gabriel by West, had hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a serious but treatable congenital heart defect in which the left side of the heart cannot properly pump blood. HLHS typically requires multiple surgeries almost immediately after birth.
Upon discovering the heart defect, Gilkar and Ahmed demanded that West abort the baby and invoked the termination clause in the surrogacy contract, cloaking their demand in faux concern about Baby Gabriel’s quality of life. No physicians in Alaska were willing to perpetrate a late-term abortion at that stage (22 weeks). The couple then scheduled an abortion in Seattle for late April (when Baby Gabriel was 23 weeks), which was delayed to a 24-week abortion in May.
West decided she could not go through with it. “Podcaster Ellen Fisher and Live Action founder and president Lila Rose helped West fly to Texas, where she could deliver at a hospital with doctors who would work to save Gabriel’s life,” Live Action News reported.
On August 12, Baby Gabriel was born around three weeks early in the Dallas area and moved to NICU for stabilizing care in preparation for heart surgery. According to reports, he was taken away from West – the woman who not only carried him but saved his life – immediately, and the parents who demanded that he be aborted were at the hospital.
“McKenna gave birth after courageously refusing the contracting parents’ demand that she abort him because of his serious but treatable heart condition,” Rose stated. “Heartbreakingly, a temporary restraining order issued yesterday prevented McKenna from seeing or holding the baby she carried and fought to protect.”
