Gabriel, the child whose biological parents requested that his gestational surrogate mother have an abortion following the diagnosis of a heart defect, was born on Wednesday, August 12, in Texas, about two and a half weeks before his due date.
Gabriel’s birth was announced on Wednesday afternoon by Fox News legal editor Kerri Urbahn. Urbahn, who said she had spoken to Gabriel’s surrogate’s lawyer, said that Gabriel was currently in the neonatal intensive care unit and is awaiting heart surgery.
The hospital where Gabriel was born has a “100 per cent success rate [for corrective surgeries] when it comes to children who are born with this particular heart defect”, said Urbahn.
That heart defect, hypoplastic left heart syndrome, is a condition in which the left side of the heart does not develop properly. Hypoplastic left heart syndrome has a 70 per cent survival rate to the age of five if medical intervention occurs shortly after birth, but failure to intervene means the child will die within days. Treatment typically involves three different heart surgeries.
Gabriel was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome at approximately 20 weeks gestation. Following the diagnosis, his biological parents, who live in California, requested that his gestational carrier, a woman named McKenna West who lives in Alaska, undergo an abortion.
After West refused to undergo an abortion, the biological parents said they would not permit Gabriel to undergo any medical treatment for his heart defect after birth. West then moved to Texas, which is home to the top paediatric cardiology hospital in the United States.
On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sought and received an intervention ensuring that Gabriel would receive appropriate medical care in the state of Texas.
Paxton announced Tuesday morning that he would be seeking a court intervention “to save an unborn child diagnosed with a treatable heart condition”. That evening, the emergency order was granted.
Tuesday evening’s court order stated that medical care would be provided after birth and would not be delayed, and it further forbade anyone from “withholding or obstructing necessary treatment or removing, discharging, or transferring the child while the court considers the case”, said a press release posted on the Texas Attorney General’s website.
“The court has made the right decision in immediately acting to protect baby Gabriel’s life and ensure he receives the care he deserves,” said Paxton in the release. “My office utilised every tool at our disposal to protect life, and we will not back down in continuing to support baby Gabriel’s well-being. Every child in our state deserves to be cared for and protected, and that’s exactly what I’ll fight for.”
