McKenna West, the Alaskan nurse who defied her surrogacy contract by refusing to terminate her pregnancy and gave birth to baby Gabriel in Dallas on August 12, has now revealed she has received no payment from the biological parents since she declined their request for an abortion, and is facing a financial crisis on top of an ongoing custody battle.
West signed a surrogacy agreement with California couple Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed in August 2025. When the baby was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome at the 20-week scan, a serious but treatable heart condition affecting the left side of the heart, the biological parents requested termination under an anomaly clause in the contract. West initially agreed before changing her mind and refusing to go through with it.
According to West's attorney Lincoln Wilson, the parents stopped making payments almost immediately after she declined the termination. He alleged they even suggested paying her only half of one month's payment given she would "be aborting this child," a claim that has not been verified by the biological parents' legal team.
West travelled to Texas, where abortion is effectively banned, gave birth two weeks early, and was immediately barred by court order from seeing or holding the baby. The child was placed in the biological parents' custody within 24 hours of birth, where he remains while receiving specialist cardiac care.
A friend has set up a fundraiser on West's behalf which has raised over $66,000, describing West as having "sacrificed so much." The fundraiser notes that West has lost the payments she was relying on, has relocated away from home, is taking time off work, and is continuing to cover her expenses back home with no income coming in from the surrogacy arrangement.
West is also facing the possibility of being sued for all money paid to her since the beginning of the arrangement, given that the biological parents' legal team has argued she breached her contract by refusing to terminate.
A court hearing is scheduled for August 25, where West intends to fight for custody. Her attorney has argued that Texas law recognises the woman who gives birth as the mother of the child, a position the biological parents' legal team has firmly rejected.
West's plea to those following the case has been simple: she needs financial support to continue fighting.
