In Connecticut, a couple who were unable to have children naturally gave sperm and egg samples and implanted the fertilized embryo in a surrogate mother named Crystal Kelley who would be paid a fee for her service.
About halfway through the second trimester, ultrasound reports confirmed multiple brain and heart defects in the female fetus. The couple, not wanting to raise a child who needed special care, asked Kelley to abort the fetus. She refused.
The strange thing is, by law only Kelley could schedule an abortion, which she was morally opposed to. But she refused to get one, so the couple got a lawyer and legally ordered Kelley to have an abortion before the last month of pregnancy, which is the cut-off date for legal abortions in Connecticut. They cited that she had broken a part of the contract promising she'd get an abortion if there were certain abnormalities.
However, Kelley didn't even want to have this child, until the original parents filed an affidavit trying to gain custody of their still unborn child, so that when it was born the baby would be surrendered to the State of Connecticut and grow up in foster care.
Kelley heard about the horror stories of foster care, so she flew to Michigan, a state which had laws that would determine Kelley as the fetus's legal mother and prevent it from entering foster care. However, since she didn't want to be a mother to the fetus, she allowed another couple to adopt it.
Then, the original parents tried to claim themselves as the legal parents to the child, now born. Despite the discovery that the wife in the couple is not the genetic mother of the baby (although the father is the genetic father) they are able to visit the child occasionally.
That's the end of the story, but what do you think about Kelley's crusade? As someone who is pro-choice, I think she acted irresponsibly and was in breach of contract, but you all may think differently.
