SCOTUS rejects surrogate’s plea to intervene in custody battle

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Tuesday denied surrogate McKenna West’s emergency request for the high court to intervene in her custody dispute with the couple who hired her. The legal battle spans a few different states—the couple lives in California, while West is from Alaska and gave birth in Texas. Kagan, who handles emergency matters involving the state of California, denied West’s application without a written opinion. West’s case could still come before the Supreme Court at some point, as her legal team indicated that she would send a petition for full arguments to be heard.

West’s legal battle as a surrogate has the attention of right-to-life and pro-abortion advocates across the country. The couple—cited in numerous reports as the child’s genetic or biological parents—asked West to abort the child late in her pregnancy after discovering that he had a heart condition. She refused to do so, offering to raise the child or give him up for adoption. Then, the California couple took action to establish their parental rights. West previously said after the birth that she was worried the parents would seek hospice for the newborn rather than keep him alive.

West calls the baby boy she birthed “Gabriel,” while the couple, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, have named him “Rumi.”

West’s plea came after the California Superior Court awarded parentage of the child, who is about one month old, to the couple. The Texas Supreme Court also ruled last week that he could be transferred to intensive care in Gilkar and Ahmed’s home state of California. In her emergency petition, West urged the U.S. Supreme Court to block parts of the California ruling and allow her to make medical decisions for the child, due to concerns that he might not receive life-sustaining care.

Dig deeper: Read Liz Lykins’ earlier report on the case for more background.