Surrogate Mother Battles for Custody of Babies She was Told to Abort

 

 

A surrogate mother of triplets is filing a lawsuit against the father of the children she is carrying, claiming that the father told her to abort the babies.

 

Fox News reports that 47-year-old surrogate mother Melissa Cook from Woodland Hills, California recently gave birth to three baby boys. 

 

The father who donated sperm to create the babies, along with an anonymous donation of eggs, is a postal worker from Georgia known simply as “C.M.”. He was connected with Cook through Surrogacy International.

 

When C.M. found out that Cook was carrying triplets, he said he could not afford to care for three babies and told her to abort them.

 

"I do not want to abort twin babies, but I felt that is such possible (sic) to seek aborting all three babies,” he wrote. “I do not want to affect Melissa’s health. I do not have any more money in the bank, and my job does not pay great bi-weekly."

 

Cook, who is pro-life, refused.

 

“I'm healthy, I'm 28 weeks pregnant, the babies are doing great, the three little boys I have inside me," Cook told Fox News outside court earlier this month before the babies were born.

 

The triplets were born on Monday, several weeks early. Under state law, Cook does not have a legal right to care for the babies, but she says she heard the babies cry before they were taken from her directly after birth, so she knows they are healthy.

 

With the help of prominent pro-life lawyer Harold Cassidy, Cook is going to court to gain custody of the children. She says she is willing to care for one or all of the babies. She also claims that she was threatened with legal and financial repercussions if she did not undergo the abortion procedure as requested.

 

Cassidy has worked to restrict surrogacy, stating that he believes the system does not prioritize the children.

 

"It's an attempt to reduce women to an object, or a breeding animal," said Cassidy. "You can doctor this up, you can play word games with it, but this is simply and purely the sale of a child.”

 

Cassidy and Cook are ready to fight for the triplets.

 

"I want what's best for them," Cook said outside court on Feb. 8. "These court proceedings are for them, to determine what is going to be in their best interest.”