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Health13 outlets ran this6 min read

Surrogate McKenna West sued for $100,000 after refusing abortion for baby with heart condition

Biological parents Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed allege breach of contract; West says she acted to save the child’s life

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published
Surrogate McKenna West sued for $100,000 after refusing abortion for baby with heart condition

What this story says

  • McKenna West, a nurse from Alaska, agreed to be a gestational surrogate for Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed in August 2025.
  • At 20 weeks, doctors diagnosed the fetus with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare congenital condition requiring major surgery after birth.
  • Gilkar and Ahmed decided to terminate the pregnancy, but West refused and travelled to Texas, where abortion is banned in nearly all circumstances.
  • The biological parents are suing West for over $100,000 for breaching their surrogacy contract, while a Texas court will rule on parentage and custody on 25 August.

Who covered it

Left 18%(2)Centre 9%(1)Right 73%(8)

Percentages are shares of the 11 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 2 of the 13 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

58/100

Craft

55/100

Hype

65/100

13 sources · methodology

Thin on the left so far

Only 2 of the 11 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.

This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.

McKenna West, a 28-year-old nurse from Alaska, agreed in August 2025 to carry a child for Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, a couple from California. The surrogacy contract included a clause allowing the biological parents to request an abortion in the event of a serious fetal abnormality. At 20 weeks, doctors diagnosed the fetus with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a condition in which the left side of the heart does not develop properly. Babies with HLHS typically require a series of surgeries after birth.

Gilkar and Ahmed decided to terminate the pregnancy following the diagnosis. West refused and travelled to Texas, where abortion is illegal in almost all circumstances. She gave birth to the baby on 12 August. The child, who has undergone major heart surgery, is named Rumi by Gilkar and Ahmed and Gabriel by West. The biological parents currently have custody and are responsible for the child’s medical care.

Gilkar and Ahmed filed a countersuit weeks before the birth, seeking over $100,000 in damages from West for breaching their surrogacy contract. They allege that West’s refusal to terminate the pregnancy caused them financial and emotional harm. West denies wrongdoing and says she acted to save the child’s life. A Texas court hearing is scheduled for 25 August to address parentage and custody disputes.

What the coverage left out

None of the right-rated digests mentioned that Gilkar and Ahmed paid West $60,000 during the pregnancy under the surrogacy contract. The left-rated report and the centre-rated report both carried the figure. None of the digests, including those from the right, left or centre, reported the specific clause in the surrogacy contract that allowed the biological parents to request an abortion in the event of a serious fetal abnormality.

Tags:#SurrogacyDispute#AbortionRights#CustodyBattle#HypoplasticLeftHeartSyndrome#TexasCourtCase

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 3 times, most recently on 20 Aug 2026, 01:15, and will add the sides that appear.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

2 rated outlets

  • The Root led on the $100,000 lawsuit as a new chapter in a broader fight over reproductive autonomy and bodily autonomy. It reported that West challenged the enforceability of the abortion provision in the surrogacy contract, arguing that it violated her bodily autonomy. The report quoted the Mayo Clinic’s description of HLHS as a rare condition requiring a series of complicated surgeries. It also noted that West felt pressured to have an abortion after the diagnosis, while Gilkar and Ahmed denied forcing her to terminate the pregnancy.
  • The Root described the case as a collision of reproductive autonomy, abortion, parental rights and the limits of what prospective parents can demand from a surrogate. It used the phrase "bodily autonomy" to describe West’s position and referred to the biological parents by name throughout. The report carried the names both parents gave the child: Rumi and Gabriel.

Centre

1 rated outlet

  • UNILAD’s report led on the biological parents’ latest legal move against West, framing it as part of a bitter surrogacy dispute. It carried the $100,000 damages claim and the allegation that West breached the surrogacy contract by refusing to terminate the pregnancy. The report quoted West’s statement to Live Action News: "I knew that I didn’t want to have to go through [an abortion]. I didn’t want for this baby, for his life to be cut short."
  • UNILAD reported that Gilkar and Ahmed paid West $60,000 during the pregnancy under the surrogacy contract. It also carried the biological parents’ denial of allegations that they launched a campaign of threats to force West to abort. The report used the names Rumi and Gabriel for the child and noted that earlier court orders had recognised Gilkar and Ahmed as the legal parents, while West had been prevented from making medical decisions or exercising possession of the baby.

Right

8 rated outlets

  • The seven right-rated digests all led on the $100,000 lawsuit as a consequence of West’s refusal to abort the child. LifeNews.com, littlebytesnews.com and ussanews.com described the biological parents as suing West for "not killing him in abortion" or "not aborting baby". The Gateway Pundit’s digest said the biological parents had "tried to force their surrogate to abort their own son over a treatable heart condition" and were now suing her for "refusing to kill the child and giving him a chance at life".
  • The right-rated digests uniformly referred to the child as Gabriel, the name West gave him, and described the heart condition as "treatable". None mentioned the name Rumi, which the biological parents gave the child. The digests carried the $100,000 damages claim and the allegation that West breached the surrogacy contract, but none reported the $60,000 payment Gilkar and Ahmed made to West during the pregnancy.

Read it at the source

13 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

2

Centre

1

Right

8

Not rated

2

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Surrogate McKenna West sued for $100,000 after refusing abortion for…?
Of the 11 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 18% are rated left, 9% are rated centre, 73% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 13. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Surrogate McKenna West sued for $100,000 after refusing abortion for… left or right?
Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 11 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
Is the coverage of Surrogate McKenna West sued for $100,000 after refusing abortion for… biased?
Surrogate McKenna West sued for $100,000 after refusing abortion for baby with heart condition is one event reported by 13 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Surrogate McKenna West sued for $100,000 after refusing abortion for…?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Surrogate McKenna West sued for $100,000 after refusing abortion for…?
13 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What is hypoplastic left heart syndrome?
Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a rare congenital condition where the left side of the heart does not develop properly. Babies with HLHS typically require a series of complicated surgeries after birth, including the Norwood procedure, to reroute blood flow and support the body. The condition was diagnosed at 20 weeks in the fetus carried by surrogate McKenna West.
Why are the biological parents suing the surrogate?
Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed are suing McKenna West for over $100,000, alleging she breached their surrogacy contract by refusing to terminate the pregnancy after the fetus was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. They claim her refusal caused them financial and emotional harm. West denies wrongdoing and says she acted to save the child’s life.
What happens next in the legal case?
A Texas court hearing is scheduled for 25 August to address parentage and custody disputes. Earlier court orders have recognised Gilkar and Ahmed as the child’s legal parents, while West has been prevented from making medical decisions or exercising possession of the baby. The court will also consider the enforceability of the surrogacy contract and West’s challenge to the parentage orders.

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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McKenna West sued over surrogate pregnancy refusal | MediaBias News