A request to consider a custody dispute between a California couple and their surrogate has been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Justice Elena Kagan rejected the emergency appeal from the surrogate, McKenna West, on Tuesday. West had requested that the Supreme Court halt a court order from California declaring the intended couple as the baby’s parents in order to ensure the child receives life-saving care, per CBS News.
West fled to Texas to give birth to a baby boy, who is known as Gabriel by West and as Rumi by his intended parents from California.
The intended parents had demanded that West abort Gabriel shortly after he was diagnosed in utero with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a serious congenital heart condition. Treatment usually requires three staged surgeries, starting with the Norwood procedure shortly after birth.
Gabriel was born in early August and did receive his first surgery soon after. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton intervened to ensure Gabriel received the necessary care, then withdrew from the case.
A Texas district court later vacated the emergency order that ensured the baby boy would remain in Texas to receive life-saving care.
Live Action reported that just days after this decision by the district court, the Texas Supreme Court denied West’s request that the baby remain in Texas for his ongoing care.
In the court’s decision, the judges argue that the “paramount concern” is sustaining the life of the baby and that “the limited materials” given to the court “describe uncontroverted medical testimony of the child’s Texas physician” and indicate that “the child’s best interest in order to preserve the child’s life as long as possible [i]s an ICU-to-ICU transfer of the child.”
The testimony also indicated that “the timing of the recommended transfer is ripe now, with the window only open for a short time to do so.”
At that point, West filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kimberlyn Schwartz, director of media and communications with Texas Right to Life, told Texas Scorecard that the organization is “disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to fight for Baby Gabriel.”
“This story shows big problems with surrogacy and why we need to protect the children who are often treated as products in these situations,” said Schwartz. “We continue to pray for McKenna, Baby Gabriel, and the intended parents, and we hope to see meaningful action in the Capitol next year to protect women and children from the surrogacy industry.”
Texas senators have begun evaluating what needs to be done in order to protect children in commercial surrogacy situations.
The next legislative session is slated to begin on January 12.
