Kagan steers Supreme Court clear of high-profile surrogacy fight

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan declined a surrogate’s emergency bid on Tuesday to intervene in her custody fight that drew national attention after the biological parents’ told her to get an abortion and she left for Texas instead .

McKenna West, the surrogate, sought to lift a parentage judgment in favor of the couple issued in a California court, where they reside. West said the case needed to be litigated in Alaska, where she lives.

Kagan received the emergency request by default and denied it in a one-sentence order without explanation. It keeps the Supreme Court out of the high-profile dispute, which implicates three states and broaches broader issues surrounding abortion and surrogacy.

Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar, the couple, had demanded West abort the then-unborn child under their surrogacy agreement. Doctors had diagnosed the fetus with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. The serious condition leaves the left side of the heart underdeveloped and unable to properly pump blood throughout the body. Doctors recommended three after-birth surgeries as the standard treatment for the condition, court filings show.

West refused an abortion and instead left Alaska for Texas , where she gave birth to the boy on Aug. 12. The surrogate tried to appeal an order the couple secured in California’s courts declaring them the legal parents. West said that has meant she is being denied any information or control over the child.

Kagan manages emergency matters arising from California by default. She could’ve referred the matter to the full court for a vote but instead chose to act alone.

West was represented by a legal team that includes Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group that has notched wins in many high-profile Supreme Court cases. They argued the case needed to be litigated in Alaska, not California.