A 28-year-old surrogate mother in the United States is facing a lawsuit from the biological parents of a baby she carried after she refused their request to terminate the pregnancy following the discovery of a serious heart defect.

🇳🇬 Here's What Happened

According to a report by TMZ on Thursday, Nasheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed filed a countersuit against McKenna West weeks before she gave birth to their baby in Texas.

Gilkar and Ahmed had agreed to pay West $60,000 to serve as a surrogate, with an abortion clause in their agreement allowing them to terminate the pregnancy if problems with the foetus were discovered, according to the lawsuit.

However, at about 20 weeks into the pregnancy, the baby was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare and life-threatening congenital heart defect.

📌 Key Details

The intended parents subsequently requested that West terminate the pregnancy, but she refused.

West instead travelled to Texas, where she gave birth to the baby on August 12.

She named the child Gabriel, while the biological parents insist that his name is Rumi.

Gilkar and Ahmed are seeking more than $100,000 in damages, alleging that West breached their agreement. They are also seeking unspecified damages over what they described as her “malicious, outrageous conduct.”

The intended parents, however, denied ever threatening to force West to undergo an abortion.

West’s lawyer, Lincoln Wilson, said Gilkar and Ahmed had not provided her with anything since she refused to terminate the pregnancy.

📰 Source: Punch Nigeria