McKenna West Asks Supreme Court to Block June 22 Custody Ruling Over Medically Fragile Baby
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Sep 9
McKenna West Asks Supreme Court to Block June 22 Custody Ruling Over Medically Fragile Baby
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 9
Summary
An emergency application filed Wednesday asks Justice Elena Kagan to freeze a Los Angeles ruling that made a California couple the legal parents of a baby born Aug. 12 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
West says that June 22 order — later upheld by a Texas judge on Sept. 2 — shut her out of the case, leaving her unable to receive updates or defend an order requiring continued life-saving treatment.
Her lawyers argue California lacked jurisdiction because West appeared only to contest it, not to litigate custody, and say treating her 147-page filing as consent raises a broader constitutional question.
The dispute began after a 20-week scan found the heart defect and West says the intended parents asked her to abort; the newborn has since undergone one of three expected open-heart surgeries and was later returned to a breathing tube.