On September 9, the attorneys for surrogate mother McKenna West filed an emergency petition before the U.S. Supreme Court requesting that they intervene in the parental petition filed by donor parents Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, which awarded Gilkar and Ahmed full custody of the child whom West named Baby Gabriel, but whom the donor parents named "Rumi."
On Tuesday, Justice Elena Kagan issued her decision, which was not in West's or her attorney's favor.
Justice Elena Kagan on Tuesday rejected a request for the Supreme Court to get involved in the case of a surrogate enmeshed in a multistate custody battle with California parents who at one point asked her to abort the fetus because of a heart defect.
McKenna West gave birth to the couple’s baby in Texas last month and argued in court there that California denied her due process when it awarded custody of the child, whom she named Gabriel, to his genetic parents.
A Texas judge dismissed her claims. She then appealed to the Supreme Court. Kagan denied to issue a stay in the case in a Tuesday order with no written decision.
Baby Gabriel/Rumi remains in critical condition in a Texas children's hospital, where he is receiving the care needed to sustain his life.
On September 17, the Texas Supreme Court denied West's request to rule that Baby Gabriel/Rumi remain in Texas to continue the specialized medical treatment he has been receiving. So, now that SCOTUS has declined to intervene, Gilkar and Ahmed are free to transport the baby back to California.
According to LiveAction:
The August 25 hearing was sealed from public view; however, a brief filed by the guardian ad litem, Susan Duesler, notes that the baby's doctor testified that he recommends the baby's remaining surgeries be carried out soon in a California hospital. Waiting would create "much more complicated treatment," according to the physician.
Dueslar said the genetic parents, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, "have followed the recommendations of the doctors to a T" and that those doctors have "unequivocally no" concerns about the parents' ability to make decisions about his medical care. The parents want to transfer his care to California, which is their state of residence.
It appears to be the end of the road for West's fight to gain custody of the baby she carried for nine months and whose life she succeeded in saving. After a prenatal screening uncovered the baby's serious heart condition, Gilkar and Ahmed demanded West undergo a late-term abortion. Instead, West refused and went to Texas in an effort to ensure the child was born and received life-saving treatment.
As RedState reported:
West fled to Texas because Ahmed and Gilkar demanded she abort the preborn baby due to the discovery of a congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). This condition is fatal without treatment, which requires three surgeries that work to correct the heart. Since Baby Gabriel/Rumi's birth, and thanks to the intervention of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who ensured the child received the required care as well as barring his transport from Texas, Baby Gabriel/Rumi has received the first of those life-saving surgeries.
Farooq Ahmed, who identifies himself as "Baby Rumi's uncle," has established a GoFundMe in "Support [of] Rumi’s Lifelong Journey with HLHS," which has raised over $28,000 as of this writing.
Farooq Ahmed's donation statement reads in part:
We want to help give Rumi’s parents the ability to stay beside him and focus on what matters most: his recovery, his milestones, and every precious moment they have together.
The emotional, mental, physical, and financial toll of caring for a child with a critical lifelong heart condition extends far beyond hospital bills. In addition to Rumi’s medical care, his family faces many other expenses associated with remaining close to him during lengthy hospitalizations and future procedures, including temporary housing, travel, time away from work, and the many unexpected day-to-day costs that come with caring for a critically ill child.
Donations will help support Rumi’s surgeries and medical care, medications, testing, therapy, prolonged hospital stays, future procedures, travel and living expenses, and the other needs that arise throughout his treatment and recovery.
If Rumi’s condition ultimately requires a heart transplant or additional major procedures, his family will face yet another significant chapter of medical care.
No matter how you slice it, it remains a terrible and complicated mess. Pray for Baby Gabriel/Rumi that he receives all the life-saving care and treatment required, and that he is loved and cared for as he deserves.