One gay couple is upset and in debt after one mother tried to keep their twin babies despite one being the biological father.
According to the Mirror, Steven and Marc Winchester-Horscraft of Baschurch, England say their surrogate tried to keep their premature babies with the excuse that her boyfriend was the father.
The two already have a son through a previous surrogacy. But when their boy asked for a sibling, they decided to go through surrogacy again. They tried several surrogates and went through several miscarriages and failed pregnancy attempts. Then in 2018, they found their latest surrogate and began trying to receive near the start of the year. Thankfully, they were successful.
Over the course of the year, the couple became close to the surrogate, even inviting her and her boyfriend to their wedding. Everything was going well until the surrogate went into premature labor in August. After the early birth, at just 28 weeks, the twin girls were taken to intensive care.
“Having our girls in NICU was only the very beginning of our long, excruciating nightmare,” said Steven.
The couple claims that after giving birth, they paid for their surrogate’s pregnancy expenses. This ended up zeroing out their savings. They then say the surrogate asked for additional money surmounting in £17,000. Meanwhile, the twins were “fighting for their lives” and battling infections, receiving blood transfusions, and dealing with lumbar punctures. During all of this, the surrogate’s boyfriend started asking for more money too. Then the surrogate started threatening to keep parental rights.
As Steven wrote on a GoFundMe page:
“A couple of days later I receive a text saying because we have not paid the extra money, our surrogate will not be putting me (the biological father) on the birth certificate and she will not sign a parental order (a form needed to remove surrogates parental responsibility giving it to the couple the babies were conceived for).”
He added, “Feeling lost and terrified we were going to lose our children we had to seek legal help.”
The couple also claim the surrogate tried banning them from seeing the newborns, despite their ongoing illnesses. They say she also registered the children under different names than what was previously decided.
Thankfully for the couple, a DNA test proved that Steven is the biological father. The girls are now living with their dads, but the custody battle continues. Again, this is on top of the girls’ continuing medical fees. In order to pay for the legal fight, the couple have opened up the before mentioned GoFundMe page. The page has now reached £9,697 of the £26,000 goal. If you wish to help support the family, you can find the GoFundMe page here.
Sources: The Mirror, GoFundMe
Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned. They only want money.(Hashtag Me Too. YEAH. HASHTAG ME TOO WANT MONEY) Adopt.
I know the surrogate and it wasn’t that she wanted the money as the media said it’s that her boyfriend that’s now her husband did because he is greedy and easily manipulates people such as the surrogate and the twins dad.