A CRAZY CASE AND PASTORAL COWARDLINESS

 By Tim Rohr

𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒: 𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘 𝐆𝐀𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐋’𝐒 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐆𝐀𝐂𝐘 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐃 𝐀 $𝟐,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐏𝐀𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐘

McKenna West’s surrogacy contract with Los Angeles couple Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar is now part of the public court record — and it reads like a corporate price sheet for a human life. Signed August 29, 2025, the agreement laid out 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲, including a $2,000 payout that only kicked in if the pregnancy had to be terminated.

West was set to collect $6,000 a month for ten months, plus a $5,000 bonus for a C-section — the termination payout was smaller than either. When she refused to end the pregnancy of a baby later diagnosed with a life-threatening heart defect, West says in her own court filing that she was warned she could owe 𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐬 $𝟐𝟓𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 for breaking the agreement.

West also claims in her filing that the biological parents tried to 𝘤𝘶𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 by booking her into a Holiday Inn Express in Washington State for the abortion. 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 — 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐭.

The biological parents, according to the court filing, 𝘤𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘔𝘤𝘒𝘦𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘪𝘯 𝘔𝘢𝘺 — the month she refused to end the pregnancy. West gave birth to Gabriel in Dallas on August 12, after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton got publicly involved and pro-life advocate Lila Rose helped get her to a state with some of the nation’s strongest protections for unborn life. Gabriel is now in his biological parents’ custody, receiving NICU care for hypoplastic left heart syndrome, with the next hearing set for August 25.

𝐀 𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐲’𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 — 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐲 𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤. 𝐌𝐜𝐊𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 $𝟐𝟓𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎.

This is a crazy case, but maybe not so crazy, and probably not uncommon, given the very common occurrence of surrogacy: a woman agreeing to gestate and give birth to a child, conceived by two other persons, usually in a laboratory. 

One crazy note in this from an ABC News story:

“West is harming Rumi by relocating to Texas, requiring him to be born in Texas, away from his parents and the specialized cardiac team in Los Angeles that will provide his lifelong care,” the court filing states. 

Can't make this up. The biological parents who wanted the child killed in the womb because their baby wasn't perfect is suing the surrogate mother for "harming" the child by first, giving birth to him "away from his parents" and away from a supposed "cardiac team in Los Angeles," where, if she had gone there prior to his birth, there would be no baby to to have given "care" to.

This is the evil underbelly of in vitro fertilization. And this is why the Catholic Church formally holds:

2376 Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the child's right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses' "right to become a father and a mother only through each other."

Sadly, most Catholics don't know this. And even sadder still, they don't know this because their pastors are too cowardly to teach it.