Texas AG Paxton backs surrogate in dispute over fetus’s heart defect
A California couple’s surrogate gave birth Wednesday in Texas, a day after a judge in Dallas ordered life-sustaining care for the newborn in a dispute over a congenital heart condition. The child was receiving stabilizing care and was scheduled to undergo surgery at a Texas hospital, according to Lincoln Davis Wilson, an attorney for McKenna West.
West traveled to Texas amid an escalating dispute with the California couple over how to treat the pregnancy. West, who was carrying the child for the couple, has accused them of wanting to end the pregnancy after the fetus was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a life-threatening heart condition.
A judge on Tuesday ordered the child to receive life-sustaining treatment after Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton intervened in support of the surrogate. The case has drawn widening national support from right-to-life groups and Republican officials.
“She has taken on great personal risk to herself,” Wilson said of West.