An Alaskan nurse is running for her unborn child's life — from the very people who commissioned his existence. McKenna West, a single mother of two who signed on as a surrogate to make ends meet, is now fighting biological parents who demanded she abort Baby Gabriel after a heart condition diagnosis, then threatened to destroy her financially when she refused, according to a lawsuit first reported by the New York Post.
This is what the surrogacy industry wrought: a contract with an "abortion on demand" clause that treats a child as a deliverable product, subject to return and destruction if he fails inspection. When a 20-week anatomy scan in April 2026 revealed Baby Gabriel had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, the biological parents — identified in court papers only as A.B. and C.D. — invoked that clause and ordered the pregnancy terminated.
HLHS is severe but treatable. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital data shows babies who receive surgery have a 75% chance of surviving to age five, and those who reach their first birthday have a 90% chance of making it to eighteen. West, a nurse who had already bonded with the child, was appalled at what abortion would mean: injecting a solution to stop the baby's heart, then, as she described it in the suit, the child being "literally ripped apart and dismembered as he's taken from [her] uterus."
Alaska doctors refused to perform the late-term, two-day procedure. So the biological parents demanded West travel to Seattle. She refused — and offered to take full custody of Baby Gabriel, absolving them of all financial and custodial obligations. They rejected the offer and threatened a $250,000 lawsuit that would bankrupt her, the lawsuit claims.
West fled to Texas, seeking a hospital specializing in pediatric cardiac care. The legal battle now spans Alaska Superior Court and the California Second District Court of Appeal, with the biological parents fighting to compel West to give birth in their home state of California and to secure parental rights over the child, who is due September 3.
West suspects the California push is a ploy. She has offered to renounce all parental rights if the biological parents vow in return to get Baby Gabriel the life-saving surgery. They have refused. Court documents show they have discussed palliative care — comfort care until death — with doctors instead.
The biological parents contend West is "distorting reality" and is only after their money, per court documents.
The CBS News article provided alongside this story covered an entirely unrelated medical piece about two sisters with heritable pulmonary arterial hypertension — offering no reporting whatsoever on the surrogacy dispute.
"Every life matters. No woman should be forced to end the life of the baby she is carrying — including me… Baby Gabriel should receive a chance at life," West told the Post in a statement.
The surrogacy contract gave A.B. and C.D. the power to order a child's death. The law gave them the power to hunt West across state lines. The only thing standing between Baby Gabriel and the culture of death is one nurse who said no. The courts will decide whether that's enough.
