Yesterday, surrogate McKenna West tearfully testified in court about the late-term abortion procedure she and the baby she carried, Rumi/Gabriel, would have endured had she caved to the pressure from his intended parents to abort him because of his heart condition.

Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed and Gilkar, the baby's intended, biological parents, were also in the courtroom, where the Dallas judge extended the temporary restraining order barring West from making decisions about the baby's care for another 14 days. However, no final ruling has been issued.

Key Takeaways:

• A court ruled yesterday that the restraining order preventing surrogate McKenna West from making decisions about the baby she carried will remain in place for at least two more weeks.

• West described the horrific abortion procedure she refused to undergo, despite pressure from the baby's parents to do so.

• West said she would drop her bid for custody if the couple agrees to ensuring the baby will receive a chance at life by getting the care he needs.

The Details:

20-week abortion is "terrifying"

McKenna West told the court that an abortion at 20 weeks gestation is "terrifying."

"It would have been a two-day procedure…" she explained. "They would have injected his heart with a solution that would stop it."

After that, in a D&E abortion, the baby is "removed" from the uterus, as The New York Post described it, but what wasn't said is that the abortionist uses forceps to pull the baby out in pieces. He dismembers the baby, tearing off and pulling out arms and legs before crushing the baby's skull.

The procedure also carries signifiant risks for the mother, including uterine perforation, hemorrhage, and infection.

2nd Trimester Abortion | Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) | What Is Abortion?

West could not go through with it. In an op-ed for The Post, she wrote:

No woman should be forced to kill the baby inside her. Most importantly, every child deserves a chance to live.

As a cardiac nurse, I knew this little one had a great shot at survival if given the opportunity to receive the necessary treatment.

Ahmed and Gilkar threatened to sue her, but West stood firm. She said:

But no threat or amount of money could sway my conviction that this baby had a real chance at a full life, and I could not participate in killing him and depriving him of that opportunity.

All I wanted was for the contracting couple to commit to giving this baby lifesaving treatment. But they refused.

So, I made my own plans to save him. My home state didn’t have a hospital equipped with the surgery he’d need at birth.

After extensive research, I found a hospital in Texas with excellent surgical outcomes, including a 100% survival rate for the Norwood procedure. I also had friends in the area who could support my kids and me through this difficult time.

West decided to fight for custody but told the couple that if they would agree to providing Rumi/Gabriel with the necessary medical care he needed, she would give up that fight.

According to West's attorneys, the couple would not agree to the surgery. They ultimately sued West for $100,000.

A California court order established Gilkar and Ahmed as the baby's legal parents, however, a Texas court and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stepped in and ordered that the baby receive surgery. After birth, he received the first of three life-saving surgeries.

No decision by judge in surrogacy custody battle over newborn baby

Possible complications and questions of trust

Now, Ahmed and Gilkar say that the baby suffered possible complications and is in critical condition.

“He’s struggling to breathe… We have to watch him gasp for air and choke on tubes,” Gilkar said in court.

There are risks with every medical procedure, but the baby would have died without the surgery — and he would most certainly have died had West aborted him as she was instructed to do.

Gilkar said she endured eight rounds of IVF and a hysterectomy before turning to surrogacy. But when the baby was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, she and her husband told West to abort him.

However, Gilkar also stated, "We've never wanted anything more than this baby."

Kera News reported:

... despite Gilkar’s testimony, West said she doesn’t trust the couple will continue seeking medical care — because Gilkar said she doesn’t regret wanting West to get an abortion.

Gilkar accused West of "trying to take him from us," calling the baby "the love of our lives."

But West explained that she doesn't trust that the couple will continue to provide the baby with medical care. “I’m not fighting to try to take someone else’s baby. I’m fighting because this baby boy needs someone willing to advocate for and fight alongside him as he gets the ongoing treatment his fragile heart requires,” West wrote.

West's attorney, Jeff Domen, told the court, "(West) didn’t want to raise a child. She entered into a contract to have a child and then give it away. But when she heard that the choice was to murder the child, she made a decision — not one that any of us would have wanted to make.”

West testified that if the couple commits to ensuring the baby receives the next two surgeries, she would drop her claims to custody.

“I have asked for only one thing from the very beginning: A commitment that this baby will be provided the life-saving treatment he needs. That is all it would take to end this," she said.

Gilkar testified that she and her husband have arranged medical care for him.

Why It Matters:

There can be an expectation among couples spending tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a child.

Claire, a woman who was conceived using IVF, explained that she knew she was wanted and loved by her parents, but the circumstances of her conception led to certain expectations that she couldn't meet. She said:

Somehow, somewhere, my parents developed the idea that they deserved to have a baby, and it didn’t matter how much it cost, how many times it took, or how many died in the process. They deserved a child. And with an attitude like that, by the time I was born they thought they deserved to have the perfect child… as Dad defined a perfect child.

And since they deserved a child, I was their property to be controlled, not a person or a gift to be treasured. 

Every single baby created via IVF was once deeply 'wanted,' yet they are subjected to rounds of testing as embryos, and scrutiny while in the womb to ensure that they best fit what their parents envision. And once a baby is born, those once "wanted" embryos are left frozen or destroyed.

No child should be treated as a commodity and killed because he or she has a health condition or a disability or because his or her parents are concerned about suffering.

Go Deeper:

Read Live Action News' coverage of this story in the articles below:

• Surrogate fights for life of baby boy with heart condition after refusing abortion

• Baby Gabriel is born and 'on the path to receive life-saving care'

• HHS tells Texas hospital it must provide life-saving care to baby in surrogacy case

• ATTORNEY: Baby boy at center of surrogacy case has had his first heart surgery

• Surrogate McKenna West saved their son's life. Now they're suing her for $100k

• Busting 4 media myths about surrogate McKenna West