Family · Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Metro · September 15, 2026
Surrogate Who Refused Abortion Clause Asks Supreme Court to Keep Baby in Texas
What Alinsky tactic is being used
3 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 11
“If you push a negative hard and deep enough, it will break through into its counterside.”
The public case for West rests on pushing a negative as far as it will go: the filing calls the couple's commitment to lifesaving care "uncertain and unknowable," and the story notes the couple "dispute her characterization of events." Reporting on the case indicates the baby did in fact receive the Norwood surgery for hypoplastic left heart syndrome and the couple's counsel says they agreed to it. Repeating the stronger claim — that they refused care — as settled fact is exactly the overclaim that hands the other side a permanent weapon.
Counter-Rule 11 · Proportional Truth
Refuse to overclaim, even where it would help. One exaggeration hands the other side the only weapon that works permanently.
Before repeating anything from this case in a Sunday school class or a public comment, write down only what is on the record: the contract contained a termination clause, West declined to abort, a California court and then a Texas judge recognized Gilkar and Ahmed as the legal parents, and the child had heart surgery. Say "the couple dispute this" out loud where they do. If you cannot source a claim to the filing or the docket, drop it rather than soften it — the contract clause is a strong enough argument without it.
Rule 3
“Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
The dispute was not decided on the moral question a church member would recognize; it was decided on multistate family-law procedure — which state's court had jurisdiction, whether a 147-page responsive filing amounted to consent to California's authority, and which pre-birth parentage order controlled. West's own application argues the California courts treated her jurisdictional defense as consent. That is ground almost no surrogate, pastor or donor is equipped to fight on, and it is where the case was lost.
Counter-Rule 3 · Preparation and Width
Prepare the unfamiliar ground before you are dragged onto it. "I don't know, I'll find out and come back" beats an improvised answer.
Do the reading before it matters, not after: Texas Family Code chapter 160, subchapter I is short, and it says a gestational agreement must be validated by a court to be enforceable (§160.756) and may not limit the gestational mother's right to safeguard her health or the embryo's (§160.754(g)). If someone in your congregation is considering surrogacy — either side of it — the honest answer to a procedural question is "I don't know, I'll find out," followed by a referral to family-law counsel in the state whose courts would actually hear it.
Rule 9
“The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.”
Leverage in this story runs through threat rather than outcome: the story reports Gilkar and Ahmed are suing West for at least $100,000, and coverage of the case says she was pressed with legal consequences under the agreement after refusing the abortion. The contract's termination clause did its work as a threat long before any court ruled on whether it could be enforced at all.
Counter-Rule 9 · Courageous Realism
Name the worst case out loud and cost it honestly. Fear of the unnamed is doing most of the work.
Name and cost the worst case rather than letting it sit unnamed. Read Texas Health and Safety Code chapter 170A, which bans abortion in Texas with a narrow life-and-major-bodily-function exception (§170A.002) and states the chapter may not be used to penalize the pregnant woman (§170A.003); note also that reporting on this case is consistent that a termination clause cannot compel a surrogate onto a table — the exposure is money, not obedience. If your church counsels anyone here, get the dollar figure of the liquidated-damages clause in writing before signing, not after.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
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