Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton waded into a high-profile legal battle on Tuesday between a surrogate and a California couple over an unborn baby’s access to lifesaving healthcare, which has captivated anti-abortion activists.
Paxton, who is running for Senate, filed a petition to intervene in the Texas court case between surrogate McKenna West, an Alaska resident who traveled to Texas to get treatment for the unborn baby’s heart defect upon his birth, and a California couple, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, who are the intended parents of the unborn child and have filed a different lawsuit in California court seeking to have West deliver the baby in the Golden State.
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West alleged in a court filing that the California couple asked her to get an abortion after the baby, referred to by Paxton and other activists as “baby Gabriel,” was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a severe heart condition that requires treatment after birth. She also claimed that the couple wants West to deliver the baby in California and has refused to agree to allow the baby to have the lifesaving treatment for his heart condition after birth.
“Baby Gabriel deserves a chance at life, and I will not allow anyone to unlawfully deny him medically necessary care,” Paxton said in a statement. “My office will use every tool available to protect innocent lives and ensure that every child receives the care required under Texas law.”
In the court filing seeking to intervene, Paxton’s office argued that once the baby is born in Texas, he must be given lifesaving surgery under state law and cannot be denied that treatment by any parental figure.
“The question the Court must prepare to answer is not whether a gestational agreement is enforceable,” the court filing from the Texas attorney general’s office said. “The question is whether any adult, whatever parental title he or she holds, may decline life-saving surgery for a newborn who can live, because the child will live with disabilities. Eighty years of Texas law, a uniform body of constitutional doctrine, and an express federal command all answer no.”
“The child about to be born in Dallas County will be a person, a Texan, and this Court’s ward in the oldest sense of the parens patriae tradition,” Paxton’s office wrote in the filing. “The agreement that arranged his conception cannot require his death. And the statutes of this State place in this Court’s hands every instrument needed to protect him.”
Paxton is seeking an emergency order in Dallas County court that would bar baby Gabriel from being removed from Texas and ensure that he is given lifesaving treatment upon his birth. The attorney general’s office also sent letters to both the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the Children’s Medical Center Dallas, reminding the medical facilities of their legal obligation to provide the child with necessary healthcare at birth.
Paxton’s office said it would be closely monitoring the case for further developments and would pursue all legal remedies to ensure the unborn baby receives “the treatment that Texas law requires.”
Anti-abortion groups, which have been advocating for baby Gabriel to receive access to treatment for the heart condition upon birth, praised Paxton’s intervention in the legal battle.
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“We applaud Attorney General Ken Paxton for taking swift action to protect baby Gabriel’s life,” Texas Alliance for Life Executive Director Amy O’Donnell said. “No contract should have the power to require a child to die because of a disability or diagnosis. Every unborn child is valuable and worthy of protection, and we are proud to live in a state where the sanctity of human life is recognized and protected from conception to natural death.”
Paxton, a Republican, has waded into the legal fight over baby Gabriel ahead of a hotly contested race for Senate in the Lone Star State between himself and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. The Senate race in Texas has been rated as “lean Republican” by the Cook Political Report.
