Surrogate Mother McKenna West Sues Biological Parents for Breach of Contract Over Compensation

Surrogate mother McKenna West is reportedly suing a California couple for breach of contract after they stopped her surrogate compensation payments, amid a dispute in which the Texas Supreme Court on Thursday authorised their baby's transfer to Los Angeles for treatment.

The compensation claim follows a disagreement during pregnancy between West and the baby's biological parents, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed.

After doctors diagnosed a severe heart defect, the couple requested an abortion under their surrogacy agreement. West refused.

McKenna West's Compensation Claim

The lawsuit concerns payments Gilkar and Ahmed halted after hiring West, a 28-year-old nurse from Alaska, to carry their child.

The couple had turned to surrogacy after eight failed rounds of IVF and a hysterectomy left Gilkar unable to conceive naturally.

The filing does not specify the total amount West is seeking in damages, although it alleges that required payments stopped in May.

The financial dispute is part of wider proceedings over the infant's care and legal parentage. A California court has recognised Gilkar and Ahmed as his legal parents, but West continues to challenge that decision. A Dallas judge has also extended a restraining order against West.

Transfer Approved in McKenna West Dispute

The Texas Supreme Court's latest decision allows the month-old baby to leave the state for a Los Angeles hospital.

The judges found that keeping him in Texas any longer could endanger his life, with medical testimony highlighting the urgency of arranging a transfer while that remained possible.

'Sustaining the life of the medically fragile child is the paramount concern in this time-sensitive matter,' the court said in the Thursday ruling reported by the Guardian.

The infant's Texas physician described the short window for a transfer between intensive care units as 'ripe now'. Permission to move the baby does not resolve West's challenge to the California parentage ruling.

The boy, named Rumi by his parents and Gabriel by West, was born in Texas on 12 August. He has since undergone complex open-heart surgery lasting two days.

Doctors diagnosed the rare condition hypoplastic left heart syndrome around 20 weeks into the pregnancy. The condition means the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped, prompting Gilkar and Ahmed's request for a termination.

West refused and travelled to Texas, which has some of the country's strictest abortion laws, to give birth. She has said she believed the couple would not pursue lifesaving treatment and wanted to 'protect' the baby.

Her claim about the parents' intentions remains contested. The couple's lawyers, Adam Wolf and Lee Budner, have accused West of 'fabricating' an emergency and conducting a 'publicity tour' that risks the child's care.

McKenna West Challenges Parental Rights

Backed by the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, West has asked the US Supreme Court to block the California ruling. Her lawyers argue that she was unlawfully excluded from decisions about a baby she had delivered.

The parents' legal team also alleges that surgery was delayed because West refused an amniocentesis needed by doctors to plan the procedure. The report does not identify a court finding establishing responsibility for the delay.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also intervened publicly to ensure that the baby received medical care after birth.

Gilkar described another medical emergency in which a feeding tube came loose and her son stopped breathing. A hospital chaplain was called, she said.

Speaking in a Dallas courtroom in August, Gilkar called Rumi 'the most beautiful person' she had ever seen. 'He's the love of our lives. He's suffering a lot.'

A Dallas judge has meanwhile extended a restraining order against West as the legal proceedings involving her and the baby's biological parents continue.