<\/p>\n
The surrogate, McKenna West (center), leaves the courtroom after a hearing on Tuesday in Dallas.<\/p>\n
Chitose Suzuki\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Everyone is here but the baby<\/a>.<\/p>\n McKenna West, the surrogate, sits on one side of the Dallas County<\/a> courtroom.\u00a0Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, the intended and biological parents, sit on the other.<\/p>\n There are teams of attorneys and a gaggle of journalists in the room, with photographers and videographers flanking the hallway outside. The courtroom is full. Everyone is here about a newborn baby who, as the hearing proceeds, is in critical care at a Dallas children\u2019s hospital.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The surrogate, the couple and the baby are bound together, all of them the focus of a politically polarizing multistate controversy<\/a>. The case has become explosively public, with a torrent of news coverage, social media takes and political posturing. Dallas has become the battleground for it all, for the baby\u2019s medical care and for the parentage claims swirling around him.<\/p>\n Related: Biological mother and surrogate both testify in Dallas court hearing<\/a><\/p>\n It started months ago when Gilkar and Ahmed, who live in California, signed a surrogacy agreement with West, who lives in Alaska. When the surrogate was about 20 weeks pregnant, the fetus was diagnosed with a severe heart condition. The couple wanted to terminate the pregnancy, but West refused. West later traveled to Texas<\/a> and gave birth in a Dallas hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since the baby\u2019s birth, a court order has barred West<\/a> from seeing the baby. Gilkar and Ahmed have been in the hospital with him and watching over his medical care, including an open heart surgery<\/a> days after his birth.<\/p>\n West has spoken publicly about the case multiple times, garnering fierce support from anti-abortion politicians and advocates. Her legal fees, she testified, are being paid by the conservative Christian advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n West has focused on her desire to give the baby a life, a chance.<\/p>\n Nausheen Gilkar (right) testified that before deciding on a surrogacy, she and her husband went through eight rounds of IVF to try to get pregnant. All were unsuccessful.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chitose Suzuki\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Gilkar has been quieter publicly. This week\u2019s court hearing, on the third floor of a Dallas courthouse, was the first time the public heard from her directly.<\/p>\n The hearing revolved around the question of parental claim. Attorneys for the surrogate want the court to give West full decision-making authority for the baby. The couple\u2019s attorneys want the court to uphold a California ruling that deemed Gilkar and Ahmed to be the parents.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s hearing ended without an immediate decision \u2014 Judge Ashley Wysocki extended the existing temporary orders pending her ruling.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The bulk of the hearing, though, was testimony from Gilkar and West<\/a>. That testimony peeled back the curtain on a complicated, emotional and highly publicized case.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the courtroom, Gilkar was called to the stand first.<\/p>\n The first witness<\/p>\n Gilkar held a tissue in her hand, a constant companion, as she walked across the courtroom.<\/p>\n Gilkar’s right wrist was encircled by a red wristhand. Her husband wore a matching red bracelet. The couple has spent every day in the hospital, Gilkar testified, as much time as they can since the baby was born earlier this month.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n She sat down at the desk and looked in her husband\u2019s direction. Ahmed nodded, several times in quick succession, as the questioning began.<\/p>\n Before they pursued surrogacy, Gilkar testified, she and her husband went through eight rounds of IVF. All unsuccessful. Eventually, she told the court, her body \u201cgave up,\u201d and she had a hysterectomy.<\/p>\n That left surrogacy as their only path to having a child that\u2019s fully genetically related to them. When her attorney, Lee Budner, asked Gilkar who the baby\u2019s biological parents are, she began to cry. She and her husband are the biological parents, Gilkar testified.<\/p>\n As her voice broke, her husband, sitting across the room from her, began again to nod. He pressed his hands together, prayer-style, and held them toward his wife. He looked up at the ceiling for a moment.<\/p>\n Omar Ahmed (right) and his wife, Nausheen Gilkar (center), wanted the surrogate to terminate the pregnancy after the fetus was diagnosed with a severe heart condition 20 weeks into the pregnancy.<\/p>\n LM Otero\/Associated Press<\/p>\n Why is it important for you to make medical decisions for the baby? Gilkar\u2019s attorney asked.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cBecause he\u2019s our child,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A couple more questions, and Gilkar began sobbing on the stand. The judge called a recess, but Gilkar didn\u2019t move from the desk until the judge directly told her that she could.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gilkar stepped through the courtroom\u2019s double doors, the sound of her sobs drifting behind her.<\/p>\n When she took the stand again, Gilkar\u2019s attorney asked her to describe how the baby is doing now. At her attorney\u2019s prompting, Gilkar told the court that the baby \u2014 whose birth certificate names him Rumi, according to court testimony \u2014 has struggled in the days since his birth.<\/p>\n It\u2019s something that West, the surrogate, can\u2019t know firsthand: Under a Dallas court order, she\u2019s barred from seeing or holding the baby.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Related: In surrogacy controversy, court documents give new detail on contract, medical plans for baby<\/a><\/p>\n At birth, Gilkar said, the baby, who has hypoplastic left heart syndrome, had to be intubated. He stopped breathing and, Gilkar added after an attorney had called out an objection, the hospital workers called a chaplain at one point.<\/p>\n The guardian ad litem \u2014 appointed by the court to represent the best interests of the baby \u2014 \u00a0will say later in the hearing that the medical providers told the couple there were two medically appropriate options for the baby. The first option was open heart surgery. The second option was palliative care, which would focus on making the baby comfortable and would mean he would likely die within a couple weeks.<\/p>\n When the couple learned that the baby was a candidate for the first open heart surgery, Gilkar testified, they chose that option \u201cimmediately.\u201d Children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome typically need three open heart surgeries by the time they\u2019re 5 in order to survive.<\/p>\n Related: North Texas baby in surrogacy case undergoes open heart surgery, attorney says<\/a><\/p>\n The baby has had that first surgery<\/a>. Gilkar said she and her husband have watched the baby gasp for air, choke on tubes.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s the most beautiful person I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Gilkar said. \u201cHe\u2019s the love of our lives. He\u2019s suffering a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout Tuesday\u2019s testimony, Gilkar did not contest that she and her husband wanted West to terminate the pregnancy after the fetal anomaly diagnosis.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of West\u2019s attorneys, Jeff Domen, asked Gilkar what her biggest regret is from 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have any regrets,\u201d Gilkar replied.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t regret, Domen continued, requesting West to undergo an abortion?<\/p>\n Gilkar cut him off to say again: no.<\/p>\n \u201cWould you trust someone to care for your child that wanted your child dead?\u201d Domen asked.<\/p>\n Gilkar replied that she doesn\u2019t know how to answer that.<\/p>\n The second witness<\/p>\n McKenna West (center)\u00a0has spoken publicly about the case multiple times, garnering fierce support from anti-abortion politicians and advocates.<\/p>\n Chitose Suzuki\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n It was West\u2019s turn next, just past 3 p.m., and she sat at the same desk with her hands folded in front of her.<\/p>\n The attorneys\u2019 questions jumped around at times. Pieced back together, West\u2019s testimony went like this.<\/p>\n West testified that, when she was pregnant and shortly after the fetal diagnosis, she initially agreed to go to an appointment at a California abortion facility. That\u2019s what the couple asked her to do. But West didn\u2019t go to the appointment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related: After refusing abortion, pregnant surrogate seeks legal protection, medical care in Texas<\/a><\/p>\n One of West\u2019s attorneys, Lincoln Wilson, asked the surrogate how she felt when she imagined going through with the abortion.<\/p>\n It was the only time, in more than an hour on the stand, that West showed significant emotion. She took a shuddering breath. She reached for a tissue from the box on the desk.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was terrifying,\u201d West said.<\/p>\n Budner, the couple\u2019s attorney, asked the surrogate why she\u2019s making a parental claim, why she wants the Dallas court to overrule the parentage order that the couple already received in California.<\/p>\n Because she gave birth to the child? Budner asked.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause since the diagnosis was made I have been absolutely willing to fight and defend his life,\u201d West said, \u201cand he is here, and he has a birthday because of the fight I have put up.\u201d<\/p>\n Are you requesting custody of the child? Budner asked her.<\/p>\n \u201cThat would be something of a discussion that could be had between the parties,\u201d West replied.<\/p>\n West has said publicly, including in a column for\u00a0the New York Post, that she would drop her parentage claim if the couple committed to providing life-saving care for the baby.<\/p>\n In the courtroom, West said she doesn\u2019t feel that the couple has made that commitment yet. What if the court finds the commitment has been made, Budner asked, then will you drop your parentage claim?<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a discussion I\u2019m open to having,\u201d she said, but Budner objected. She didn\u2019t answer the question, Budner said, and the judge agreed.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease answer the question, ma\u2019am,\u201d Budner said.<\/p>\n Throughout her testimony, West paused frequently before answering questions. Still, this pause was extended. Seconds ticked by.<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d West said. As in, yes, she would drop her claim if the court found the couple had committed to life-saving care.<\/p>\n Related: Baby at center of multistate surrogacy controversy born in North Texas<\/a><\/p>\n West\u2019s attorney, Wilson, asked her about this, too. He asked if she trusts Gilkar\u2019s testimony to mean that the couple will actually provide life-saving medical care to the baby.<\/p>\n West said that she does not trust the testimony to mean that.<\/p>\n \u201cHearing her say,\u201d West said of Gilkar, \u201cthat she doesn\u2019t regret wanting him to be terminated even though he\u2019s here and he\u2019s alive now.\u201d<\/p>\n Budner seized on something in this. Didn\u2019t you change your mind, he asked West, from the time you agreed to the surrogacy contract\u2019s termination clause, to the time of the actual abortion appointment?<\/p>\n There was some back and forth. Some pauses. West, eventually, said yes, she did change her mind.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy can\u2019t Nausheen and Omar?\u201d Budner asked. \u201cWhy can\u2019t they change their mind?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know that they have,\u201d West replied.<\/p>\n Gone public<\/p>\n Nausheen Gilkar (right) comes out from a courtroom during a recess in a court hearing regarding a\u00a0signed a\u00a0surrogacy agreement involving a baby who was diagnosed with a severe heart condition 20 weeks into the surrogate’s pregnancy. The couple wanted to terminate the pregnancy, but the surrogate refused.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chitose Suzuki\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n The case is complicated, fraught.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also highly unusual, two experts told The Dallas Morning News. It is rare, the experts said, for a surrogate to make a parental claim on a child born through surrogacy.<\/p>\n Alexis Cirel, a New York City-based family and fertility attorney, said it\u2019s even more unusual for a parentage claim to be made by a \u201cgestational carrier,\u201d which is a surrogate who is not genetically related to the child.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just uncommon,\u201d Cirel said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re talking about gestational carriers like this, it\u2019s virtually never.\u201d<\/p>\n Also notable, said Heather Jacobson, a professor and reproductive scholar at the University of Texas at Arlington, is the involvement of anti-abortion groups and politicians.<\/p>\n Related: Five things to know about surrogate pregnancies<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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