A surrogate mother, McKenna West from Alaska, has submitted an updated legal brief to the U.S. Supreme Court. This follows her previous emergency application to the court concerning a rapid-paced legal case. West is engaged in a dispute with a California couple over her refusal to abort a pregnancy at their request. The unborn child has been diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), a severe heart condition.

West, represented by attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom and First & Fourteenth PLLC, has asked Justice Elena Kagan for an administrative stay and a stay in anticipation of a possible petition for certiorari. Justice Kagan handles emergency matters from the Ninth Circuit.

Surrogate, California Couple Clash Over Baby with Heart Defect

West argues that the California courts breached federal due process by interpreting her jurisdictional defense as consent. She asserts that without a stay, the child could be taken to California for hospice care, leaving her unable to influence the child’s medical decisions. The surrogate expressed concern on Monday that the baby might be moved from Texas sooner than anticipated.

As of Tuesday, West is requesting an administrative stay by 1 p.m. Eastern Time.

Earlier, a California court had declared the commissioning couple as the legal parents, rejecting West’s custody claims. The couple has maintained that California holds jurisdiction under the surrogacy arrangement which designates them as the child’s legal parents.

West traveled to Texas, a state with abortion restrictions, to deliver the baby in order to secure specialized medical attention. She sought court orders for parentage and protection in both Alaska and Texas. However, the commissioning couple sought a parentage ruling in the Los Angeles Superior Court, as reported by Fox 4.

The surrogate contested the court’s jurisdiction, referring to a forum-selection clause requiring proceedings to be in Alaska. The California trial court, however, deemed her jurisdictional arguments and supplemental exhibits as a general appearance, thus accepting the court’s jurisdiction. Consequently, it issued a parentage ruling in favor of the commissioning parents.

Following the child’s birth in Texas on August 12, a Texas court acknowledged the California decision, establishing the commissioning couple as the legal parents, and dismissed West from the case with prejudice, barring her from refiling the claim in the same proceedings.