Image Source: McKenna West
A surrogate mother is fighting for custody of the unborn baby she is carrying after the intended parents allegedly requested an abortion when he was diagnosed with a serious heart condition.
McKenna West, a nurse from Alaska, became pregnant through commercial surrogacy after signing with Worldwide Surrogacy Specialists in February 2025. The company’s website states that surrogate mothers are paid between $55,000 and $70,000.
West said she initially considered the intended parents “a perfect match.” However, at the baby’s 20-week scan, doctors diagnosed him with hypo-plastic left heart syndrome, a rare condition in which the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped.
Although the condition can be treated through surgery after birth, the intended parents allegedly asked West to abort the baby.
Her surrogacy contract required an abortion in the event of a foetal “anomaly”, but West refused.
“I knew that I didn’t want to go through with it,” she said. “I didn’t want this baby’s life to be cut short.”
The pregnancy was approaching 22 weeks, and West said she would have been required to travel from Alaska to Seattle because no doctor in her home state was willing to perform an abortion at that stage.
West, who has named the baby Gabriel, instead found a hospital in Texas with considerable experience treating children born with the same condition.
The intended parents subsequently stopped making payments to West and demanded that she return money already paid, together with damages for allegedly breaching the surrogacy agreement.
The couple have begun legal proceedings in California to establish their parental rights and asked the court to require West to give birth there. An Alaska court did not order her to relocate, although it accepted that a California court could potentially determine where the birth takes place and which medical team treats Gabriel.
West claims the intended parents intend to provide only comfort care after the birth rather than authorising the operations needed to treat his condition.
She has agreed to travel to California if they commit to surgery and has filed for custody in the hope of gaining authority over Gabriel’s medical treatment.
“I want to fight for him because he deserves that chance,” West said.
“There’s no guarantee. There’s not a guarantee with anything. But he deserves a chance at living life outside of my womb. My goal is to get him surgery.”
SPUC Executive Director, Michael Robinson, says: “Yet again we have another surrogacy horror story in which intended parents are trying to have their child destroyed because he doesn’t meet their perfect expectations. This is the surrogacy industry: a eugenic baby-buying business.”
He continued, “SPUC supports McKenna West in her fight for her baby’s life and will make sure to prevent surrogacy contracts from being enforced before birth in the United Kingdom. These American horror stories cannot happen here.”
