By The people constantly warning that Republicans are turning America into The Handmaid’s Tale may want to take another look at what is actually happening.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for Senate, has intervened in a bizarre surrogacy dispute involving a baby with a serious but treatable heart defect after the child’s intended parents allegedly demanded an abortion and later refused to agree to surgery that could save his life.
I secured an emergency court order ensuring that baby Gabriel receives life-saving care in Texas. pic.twitter.com/Yv84BFoFi7
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) August 12, 2026
A Dallas County judge has now issued an emergency order requiring doctors to provide medically necessary care to the child, known as Baby Gabriel, immediately after birth and preventing anyone from removing or transferring him while the case proceeds.
Gabriel was diagnosed before birth with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, or HLHS, a congenital defect in which the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped. Children born with the condition require immediate medical intervention, generally beginning with the Norwood procedure followed by additional staged surgeries. Without treatment, the condition is fatal.
According to Paxton’s office, Gabriel was diagnosed at approximately 20 weeks.
His surrogate mother, Alaska nurse McKenna West, allegedly was then asked by the intended parents, a California couple, to abort him, according to a disturbing report by CBS News.
She refused.
West instead offered to raise Gabriel herself or arrange an adoption and eventually traveled to Texas, where she sought protection and access to physicians experienced in treating the condition. Paxton’s office alleges that the intended parents have refused to agree that they will consent to Gabriel’s surgery after birth and could attempt to move him out of Texas before treatment is provided.
That is where Texas stepped in.
Paxton intervened in the Dallas County parentage case and separately warned UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center of Dallas that physicians have an independent obligation under Texas law to provide emergency life-sustaining treatment.
“Baby Gabriel deserves a chance at life, and I will not allow anyone to unlawfully deny him medically necessary care,” Paxton said. “My office will use every tool available to protect innocent lives and ensure that every child receives the care required under Texas law.”
The court agreed.
Its emergency order requires medically indicated treatment to begin without delay after Gabriel is born and prohibits anyone from withholding care or removing, discharging or transferring him while the dispute continues. Doctors must also notify the court immediately if someone refuses consent for treatment or attempts to transport the child elsewhere.
The contrast in how conservatives and liberals treat life could hardly be sharper.
Just one day earlier, Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey signed legislation eliminating the state’s previous specific restrictions on abortions after 24 weeks and allowing physicians to rely on their professional judgment. The law also eliminated the requirement that post-24-week abortions take place in hospitals.
For years, progressive activists have dressed in the red robes and white bonnets of The Handmaid’s Tale to warn that Republican abortion laws would create a dystopia in which women and their pregnancies were controlled by the state.
But the contrast here is difficult to ignore. Massachusetts is expanding late-term abortion access while Texas is fighting to ensure that a baby with a treatable heart defect receives the surgery that could save his life.
Baby Gabriel was allegedly targeted for abortion after his diagnosis. His surrogate refused. Now Texas is insisting that once he is born, he be given the chance to live.
Maybe the Handmaid’s Tale costumes were pointed in the wrong direction.
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