Newborn with heart condition at center of surrogacy legal fight has surgery

Rumi was born in Texas after the surrogate refused to have an abortion. The parents, who live in California, said they respected that but wanted treatment in their home state.

A baby with a serious heart condition who was the center of a multistate legal fight involving a surrogate who said she refused to terminate the pregnancy underwent surgery Monday, the lawyer representing the child’s biological parents said.

McKenna West gave birth to Rumi on Wednesday in Texas. The child was diagnosed with a rare congenital heart condition, hypoplastic left heart syndrome, in utero. It is a defect resulting from the underdevelopment of the organ.

West has alleged that the biological parents repeatedly pressured her to have an abortion.

A response the couple’s attorney filed in Alaska alleges that West was “clear and knowing in her intention to abide by” the parents’ request for a termination if tests revealed a fetal abnormality.

Before the child was born, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, an anti-abortion Republican running for the Senate, intervened and filed a motion asking the Texas state court to order doctors to perform surgery on the child. He alleged that the biological parents might refuse to provide the baby with lifesaving care — which the parents have denied.