A Black Surrogate Fight For Bodily Autonomy in High-Stakes Legal Battle
(Updated at 08/13/2026 @ 1:15 p.m.)
A surrogacy agreement can spell out who a child’s parents are. It can spell out what happens if a pregnancy goes wrong. But can it tell a woman what to do with her own body? That is the question at the center of McKenna West’s extraordinary legal battle.
According to CBS News, the Alaska nurse, mother of two and gestational surrogate for a California couple gave birth to a baby diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a serious but treatable heart defect. The intended parents, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, asked her to terminate the pregnancy, citing a provision in their surrogacy agreement covering fetal abnormalities. And that’s when the legal battle began.
West was set to give birth on Sept. 2, but instead, the baby, whom she named Gabriel, was born on Wednesday (Aug. 12), West’s attorney told The Dallas Morning News. Gabriel will now undergo life-saving care, although his specific health plan has not been fully disclosed.
“My understanding is that the arrangements are being made for him to receive that surgery,” the attorney told CBS News. In the meantime, a court order has barred West from seeing the child.
All parties are expected to head to a Dallas court on Aug. 25, her lawyer said.
After receiving the congenital heart condition diagnosis at 20 weeks, West refused to terminate her pregnancy and moved to Texas to ensure the baby Gabriel could receive specialized treatment after his birth next month, according to Live Action.
The intended parents’ argument is straightforward: they have a contract. They agreed with West before the pregnancy that certain circumstances could lead to termination. From their perspective, West’s refusal is a breach of that agreement.
But West has a powerful answer: a contract does not necessarily give someone else control over her body.
“Every time I thought about having to show up at the [abortion] clinic, I was hysterical, and I couldn’t picture myself reacting or feeling any other way,” West told Live Action. “I was really scared of how I would view myself as a woman and a mother, how I’d be able to come home to my kids after participating in something like that.”
Texas law is unusually explicit on this point. Its gestational surrogacy statute says an agreement “may not limit” the surrogate’s right to make decisions to safeguard her own health or the health of an embryo.
But that does not mean that West wins the entire case. It means the intended parents cannot simply assume that a contractual provision gives them the power to compel an abortion. Their contractual and parental claims are separate from West’s bodily autonomy.
And there is an even bigger wrinkle: the legal situation has changed now that the baby is born.
Because West traveled to Texas, a red state with some of the strictest abortion laws in the country, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton intervened on the state’s behalf. Now, a Texas court has ordered that Gabriel receive medically indicated stabilizing and life-sustaining care after birth. The order also restricts removing him from the hospital or from Texas while the dispute continues.
“The court has made the right decision in immediately acting to protect baby Gabriel’s life and ensure he receives the care he deserves,” Paxton said after the decision, according to the New York Post. “My office utilized every tool at our disposal to protect life, and we will not back down in continuing to support baby Gabriel’s well-being.
That puts three interests into conflict.
West argues that she has the right to control her pregnancy and make medical decisions concerning her body. The intended parents argue that their surrogacy agreement gives them legal rights and that they should be recognized as the child’s parents. Texas, meanwhile, has an independent interest in protecting the child once he is born.
That last distinction is crucial. The question before birth is largely about bodily autonomy and contract law. So while West can celebrate an initial win, the case is far from over.
