Surrogate takes custody fight over baby to Supreme Court

A surrogate who refused an abortion requested by the baby's intended parents has filed an emergency application with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to block a California court judgment that recognizes the couple as the child's legal parents. Attorneys for McKenna West, a 28-year-old cardiac nurse from Alaska, filed the application Wednesday with Justice Elena Kagan, who handles emergency matters from the Ninth Circuit. The court had not responded to the request as of Thursday. West is seeking a stay that would allow her to rejoin a Texas custody case over the boy, who was born Aug. 12 in Dallas with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a life-threatening condition that prevents normal blood flow through the heart. According to West's filing, a Texas judge dismissed her from the conservatorship case on Sept. 2 after deferring to the California parentage judgment, leaving her without standing and without access to information about the child. The Texas ruling is sealed, and its reasoning is known publicly only through West's filing.