When a California couple wanted their surrogate, McKenna West, to abort the baby she was carrying, she fled to Texas. There, pro-life laws and Attorney General Ken Paxton helped save the baby, ensuring he got the care he needed.
But as Democrat state Rep. James Talarico challenges Paxton for Senate, it raises the question—what would Talarico do?
West, an Alaska nurse and single mother of two, agreed to serve as a surrogate for Californians Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar. At the 20-week anatomy scan, doctors diagnosed the baby boy with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a serious but treatable condition. The couple asked West to get a late-term abortion, and she scheduled it—but later felt convicted and canceled.
After West refused the abortion, the couple stopped paying and sued her. She named the baby Gabriel and sought custody so he could receive the life-saving surgery he needed. The couple had reportedly not indicated they would allow doctors to perform the surgeries. West traveled to Texas, where the state’s pro-life laws protect Gabriel. Paxton secured an emergency order demanding Dallas hospitals provide life-saving care. The next day, on Aug. 12, the baby was born safely. On Aug. 17, he received the first surgery to correct his heart condition. While Gabriel is alive, a judge issued a restraining order against West, and he was given to his purchasers. Those purchasers are reportedly suing West for $100,000 for not aborting the baby.
West took a courageous stand to save baby Gabriel’s life. And Paxton’s swift action protected them.
As Talarico challenges Paxton for Senate, his past comments on abortion suggest he may not have been so kind.
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“Jesus never talks about abortion,” Talarico said on a recent podcast. “The Bible is silent on abortion. And when that happens with a social issue as important as abortion, we Christians have to take scripture as a whole.”
Apparently, Talarico’s Presbyterian seminary never taught him the Sixth Commandment: “You shall not murder.” Or Psalm 139:13-14—“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
To justify abortion, he even pointed to the biblical account where the angel Gabriel told Mary she would give birth to Jesus. (The angel shares a name with the baby McKenna West saved). “To me, that is an affirmation in one of our most central stories that creation has to be done with consent,” he said. “You cannot force someone to create.”
Apparently, Talarico views the birth of Jesus like the Californian parents view baby Gabriel—emphasizing not the miracle, but the consensual contract.
In 2021, he voted against a bill that would ban abortions by mail and protect unborn babies after 7 weeks. At that point, the baby is already developing vital organs, arms, legs, nostrils, and eyes.
In 2022, Talarico proposed an amendment to stop Texas lawmakers from passing any more pro-life laws without a popular vote. And in 2024, he was endorsed by Planned Parenthood Texas Votes for the primary and general election.
Talarico claimed that those who see the human dignity of unborn babies simply want to control women. “I think that’s what we see across this Christian nationalist movement,” he said on Joe Rogan’s podcast. “This is religion at its worst: trying to control people and what they do.”
The Daily Signal reached out to Talarico’s spokesman several times but did not hear back in time for publication.
Had Texas leadership followed Talarico’s approach of disregarding the unborn baby’s rights, the story of baby Gabriel could have ended very differently. Gabriel could have undergone a late-term abortion—injecting poison to stop his heart, then ripping him apart.
Texas saved this precious baby. But Talarico’s track record suggests he might not have.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.
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