{"id":42836,"date":"2026-08-13T09:23:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T04:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42836"},"modified":"2026-08-13T09:23:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T04:23:03","slug":"surrogate-who-refused-to-abort-baby-despite-biological-parents-request-gives-birth-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42836","title":{"rendered":"Surrogate who refused to abort baby despite biological parents&#8217; request gives birth in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F08%2FUntitled-1-15.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The surrogate who <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/12\/us-news\/surrogate-mckenna-west-who-refuses-to-abort-baby-despite-its-biological-parents-wishes-scores-early-legal-victory\/\">refused to abort her<\/a> baby despite the wishes of the boy\u2019s biological parents gave birth early on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>McKenna West has been caught up in a contentious multi-state controversy over parental rights and abortion after the unborn child she was carrying was diagnosed with a severe but treatable heart condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>West, who was set to give birth on Sept. 2, delivered the newborn baby she named Gabriel in the Dallas area on Wednesday, her attorney Lincoln Wilson told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/business\/health-care\/article\/surrogacy-mckenna-west-birth-22385469.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Dallas Morning News.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>McKenna West gave birth to the surrogate baby she was carrying on Wednesday despite the biological parents requesting she terminate the pregnancy.  <span class=\"credit\">Courtesy of McKenna West<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Gabriel will now undergo life-saving care for his congenital heart condition, Wilson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, due to a court order, West is not allowed to see or hold the baby.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The contentious legal-battle began in April after the unborn child was diagnosed with the severe heart condition, hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), at 20 weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The surrogacy contract between West and the biological parents contained a clause that allowed terminations if there was an \u201canomaly\u201d during the pregnancy.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The unborn child was diagnosed with a severe but treatable heart condition at 20 weeks.  <span class=\"credit\">McKenna West\/Facebook<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Following the diagnosis, the couple called on West to seek an abortion.<\/p>\n<p>West, a single mom of two, refused to terminate the pregnancy and instead traveled to Texas where she would be recognized as the birth mother under state law.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The biological parents called upon West to abort the pregnancy but she refused. <span class=\"credit\">McKenna West\/Facebook<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had filed a petition urging doctors to give the baby life-saving care upon his birth to stop him from being taken out of the state which was granted Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The emergency court order requires two Dallas hospitals to provide critical care to the baby, which includes intensive treatment and at least one surgery.<\/p>\n<p>Newborns diagnosed with HLHS require surgery almost immediately after birth in order to survive beyond their first week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, if Gabriel does eventually leave the hospital, it is not immediately clear what the legal outcome will be.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While a separate court order is prohibiting her from currently seeing the baby, West would consider taking the child if the courts permit, according to her attorney.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>West\u2019s legal team believes that the termination clause within the surrogacy contract, while standard, is \u201coffensive to state and federal law,\u201d according to The Dallas Morning News.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe law doesn\u2019t permit hit man contracts,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cAnd this is a hit man contract.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The California couple, who are suing West, were slated to appear in a Dallas County court on Aug. 25.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The surrogate who refused to abort her baby despite the wishes of the boy\u2019s biological parents gave birth early on Wednesday. McKenna West has been caught up in a contentious multi-state controversy over parental rights and abortion after the unborn child she was carrying was diagnosed with a severe but treatable heart condition.\u00a0 West, who&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Untitled-1-15.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}