Melissa Cook, a surrogate mother from California, has filed a 47-page lawsuit claiming that the surrogacy law in California is unconstitutional. The pro-life fighter who is now at the 18th week of her pregnancy is being pressured by the client to undergo an abortion or face "financial ruin."
"I no longer view surrogacy arrangements in the same favorable light I once did," Cook explained on a statement to The New York Post. "Children derive a special benefit from their relationship with their mother. I now think that the basic concept of surrogacy arrangements must be re-examined, scrutinized and reconsidered."
The 47-year-old mother was hired by an unidentified man from Georgia who paid $33,000 to carry his baby via an In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) using his own sperm and donated eggs. At first, the male client was happy to discover that the implantation was successful, but he started to panic when he found out that the three embryos unexpectedly all developed normally.
It was then that the conflict started: the biological father only wanted two kids so he demanded that Cook gets rid of one of the triplets. He argued that the contract permitted requests for a "reduction" and he "threatened" monetary damages if the mom does not comply.
According to the Daily Mail UK, California law does not allow women to have an abortion after around 20 weeks of pregnancy or when the fetus can survive outside of the womb. Now that Ms. Cook is entering her 18th week of pregnancy, the threats are increasing.
The surrogate mother pleaded that, as the legal mother of the triplets, she be granted custody of at least one child, particularly the one that the father wanted to abort. The fate of the remaining two children will be decided by the court.
The representative of the unidentified man from Georgia, Atty. Robert Warmsley, wrote that the father "understand, albeit does not agree" with the mother's decision not to get rid of the fetus, reported CNS News. Per the terms of the agreement, Cook's refusal to "reduce" will cause her to "lose all benefits under the agreement, damages in relation to the future care of the children [and] medical costs associated with any extraordinary care the children may need."
