Family · Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Metro · September 15, 2026
Surrogate Who Refused Abortion Clause Asks Supreme Court to Keep Baby in Texas
McKenna West, a 28-year-old surrogate, has filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to prevent a newborn boy from being moved out of a Dallas hospital, the New York Post reports. West's surrogacy contract with Los Angeles couple Nasheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed included a clause permitting termination if a fetal "anomaly" was detected. When the baby was diagnosed at 20 weeks with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a serious congenital heart defect, West refused to abort and relocated to Texas, where abortion is illegal. A California court has recognized Gilkar and Ahmed as the child's legal parents, a ruling a Texas judge also upheld, finding West lacks authority over the baby's medical decisions. West, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, is asking the Supreme Court for an administrative stay and full custody, arguing the couple's future commitment to lifesaving care is "uncertain and unknowable." The baby's guardian ad litem has filed a separate emergency motion to modify the existing care order. Gilkar and Ahmed are suing West for at least $100,000 and dispute her characterization of events.
Source: nypost.com
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Why Bible-Believing Christians Should Care
This case puts the sanctity of innocent human life at the center of a modern legal battle over surrogacy contracts that treat unborn children as terminable products rather than persons made in God's image. West's refusal to comply with an abortion clause — and her flight to a state where the child's life is legally protected — reflects the conviction that no contract can override the duty to preserve a life once conceived. Christians should note that Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal organization, is directly involved in defending that conviction before the Supreme Court. The outcome may shape how courts treat conscience-based refusals within surrogacy arrangements nationwide, and whether contractual "anomaly" clauses permitting abortion can be enforced against a party's religious or moral objection.
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. — Psalm 139:13
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From the book
Strategically, the family is the transmission belt of civilization. It is where identity forms, where the Imago Dei, the image of God in every person, is first encountered, and where the values of the Kingdom are modeled in daily life. Which makes the family the single greatest obstacle to any totalitarian or radical ideology. A child who learns his worth from a loving father and mother is difficult for the state to indoctrinate. A family that is spiritually and economically self-reliant is difficult for the market to manipulate.
— Chapter 18
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