Family · Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Metro · August 27, 2026
Dallas Surrogate Refuses Abortion, Sparks Custody Fight Over Baby's Life
A custody dispute in a Dallas, Texas courtroom is drawing national attention after a surrogate mother refused a biological mother's request to abort a baby diagnosed in utero with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a congenital heart defect. According to CNN, biological mother Naushin Gilkar had pursued eight rounds of IVF and a hysterectomy before contracting with surrogate McKenna West, 28. When the fetus was diagnosed at 20 weeks, Gilkar requested abortion; West refused and relocated to Texas, where abortion is banned, giving birth on August 12. The biological parents named the child Lumi; West calls the baby Gabriel. A judge ruled the birth certificate name, Lumi, stands, extended a restraining order against West, but has not ruled on custody. The baby, now in a Dallas hospital ICU, has undergone surgery and faces two more before age five. Both women gave emotional court testimony, and West has publicly fundraised around the case, which has become entangled in the broader U.S. abortion debate. No custody decision has yet been issued.
Source: 아시아경제
Why Bible-Believing Christians Should Care
Scripture affirms that unborn children are known and formed by God, not disposable property subject to a contract's terms. This case illustrates the moral confusion the surrogacy industry produces: a child's life became a bargaining point once his diagnosis made him inconvenient. Christians should note that West's refusal to comply with an abortion request, whatever her motives, aligns with the biblical conviction that life in the womb carries full human dignity. But the deeper issue for believers is upstream — third-party reproductive arrangements that treat children as products to be ordered, delivered, and potentially discarded create exactly this kind of custody chaos. The sanctity of life does not depend on convenience, health prognosis, or contractual expectation.
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee — Jeremiah 1:5
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From the book
The family is a pre-political institution. It existed before the state, and it holds authority the state did not grant and cannot lawfully take. When Christians defend the family they are defending the first institution of God against the encroachment of Caesar.
— Chapter 18, “The Jurisdictional Mandate”
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