from States Newsroom
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By Elisha Brown |
The Children’s Health Specialty Center in Dallas on June 22, 2022. A baby boy born in Texas last week is at the center of a case between a California couple, an Alaska surrogate and the state’s attorney general. (Photo by Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune)
The attorney general of Texas has inserted himself into a legal battle between an Alaskan surrogate and a California couple. At the center of the case lies a baby boy with a heart defect born in Dallas last week.
Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, the newborn’s biological parents, said medical providers diagnosed the fetus with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a severe birth defect, when McKenna West, the surrogate mother, was 20 weeks pregnant, The Texas Tribune reported.
A lawyer for West told the Tribune that the couple insisted she get an abortion after the diagnosis, but their legal team said they all mutually agreed to terminate the pregnancy.
West eventually traveled to Texas for legal protection before giving birth. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, an anti-abortion Republican running for the U.S. Senate, intervened in the case last week.
A California court has recognized the couple as the rightful parents of the child, and a Dallas judge granted the couple’s request to bar West from seeing the baby after giving birth last week, according to the Tribune. The judge also said the baby should remain in Texas for treatment.
The case is ongoing, but it illuminates some anti-abortion Republicans’ growing opposition to surrogacy.
The Texas GOP added a section to its party platform this year that demands the legislature “protect fetal life from destructive practices, such as IVF and commercial surrogacy,” Stateline recently reported.
THE BEAT
KANSAS
Kansas anti-abortion organization seeks special session to challenge reproductive rights: An anti-abortion group called on the Republican-led Kansas legislature to convene a special session to consider placing a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot declaring that life begins at conception. The head of the Kansas Equal Rights Amendment Committee said the request is urgent after voters rejected a ballot measure this month that would have established judicial elections. That amendment was backed by abortion opponents in a bid to eventually overturn state Supreme Court precedents that solidified abortion rights. — Kansas Reflector
IDAHO
Idaho judge ruling allows abortion if it protects mother’s health, prevents self-harm: A federal judge in Idaho ruled Thursday that pregnant Idahoans have a right to abortion if their health is threatened by childbirth. U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill determined that Idaho law violates the constitutional rights to due process and equal protection outlined in the 14th Amendment, which he argued “establish a narrow but fundamental right to abortion” in high-risk situations. Women whose fetuses have life-limiting diagnoses that don’t threaten their health are still barred from receiving abortions in the state, Winmill wrote. — Idaho Capital Sun
MISSOURI
Planned Parenthood begins offering procedural abortions in the Missouri Ozarks: A midwestern Planned Parenthood affiliate in Missouri opened a clinic in Springfield last week, returning abortion access to the Ozarks for the first time in more than two decades. The location will offer procedural abortions up to 12 weeks of pregnancy and medication abortions through 10 weeks, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers said in a news release. The opening comes as Missouri voters are set to decide whether to reinstate an abortion ban during the midterm elections. — Missouri Independent
NEVADA
Nevada lawmakers mull maternal health protections ahead of 2027 legislative session: Lawmakers on the Nevada Health and Human Services Committee met last week to consider a number of maternal health-related bills to advance next year. The “momnibus” package includes proposals to seek federal reimbursement for social determinants of health screenings, to require insurers to provide coverage for at-home blood pressure monitors a year postpartum, and to ban mental health and substance use disorder treatment providers from refusing patients because they’re pregnant or have recently given birth, among other measures. — Nevada Current
ARKANSAS
March of Dimes report highlights Arkansas’ gaps in maternity care: Nearly half of Arkansas’ 75 counties are designated maternity care deserts — areas that lack obstetrics providers and hospitals without labor and delivery units, according to a report released last week. About half of the state’s births are covered by Medicaid, but Arkansas is the only state that has not expanded postpartum Medicaid from two months to a year. — Arkansas Advocate
MISSISSIPPI
Maternity care deserts make up nearly half of Mississippi counties, report finds: About half of Mississippi’s counties are maternity care deserts, according to last week’s March of Dimes report. The state routinely has some of the nation’s highest maternal and infant mortality rates. Policy decisions including limited Medicaid coverage and midwifery regulations contribute to the lack of obstetrics care, the report’s authors concluded. — Mississippi Today
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THE PULSE
IL: Settlement reached in suit against Illinois doctor who left part of fetus inside patient during abortion | Chicago Sun-Times
TX: Texas maternal mortality committee’s next report will skip post-Roe deaths | Texas Observer
ABORTION ACCESS IN THE U.S.
Track state-level developments on reproductive rights anytime at News From The States. Send tips and thoughts to ✉️ [email protected], and follow her on Bluesky @elishabrown.
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