An Alaska surrogate, McKenna West, has taken her legal fight over a newborn diagnosed with a serious heart condition to the US Supreme Court, asking Justice Elena Kagan to block a Los Angeles court ruling that named a California couple as the baby's legal parents. The case centres on West's refusal to have an abortion after the child was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome during pregnancy, a decision she says the intended parents, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, had wanted her to make under their surrogacy agreement. The dispute raises questions about surrogacy contracts, jurisdiction and parental rights in cases involving a fetal medical diagnosis.

West alleges she was threatened with financial penalties exceeding $250,000 for continuing the pregnancy after refusing to terminate it, and says she was denied proper legal notice of the California proceedings, which instead named the intended parents as the child's legal guardians on 22 June. The baby, born in Texas on 12 August and known as Gabriel to West and Rumi to the couple, has undergone the first of three planned open-heart surgeries and has reportedly suffered complications. Texas's attorney general intervened to secure emergency orders ensuring the child receives care, while a separate court order has barred West from seeing or holding the baby.