Dad-to-be Demands Surrogate Mum Abort One of Triplet Foetuses

A Georgia man who hired a surrogate to have his baby is demanding that she aborts one of the foetuses when he learned she was having triplets; he is also threatening her with financial ruin, New York Post reports.

Melissa Cook, the surrogate mum, reportedly prefers to safely birth all foetuses as she says, “They are human beings. I bonded with these kids. This is just not right.”

The unnamed Georgia man had hired Cook for $33,000 to have a child by in-vitro fertilization using his sperm and the eggs of a 20-year-old donor. Melissa Cook had been implanted with three embryos; it turned out to be rather unfortunate for the dad as all three implantations were a success.

Cook said she and the man learned she was having triplets when the embryos were around 8 or 9 weeks. He began raising concerns which she claims have taken on a more threatening nature in recent times.

47-year-old Cook, who has her own set of triplets plus another child, also had a fifth child as a surrogate. California law says that aside from life-threatening exceptions, foetuses can’t be aborted once they become “viable,’’ or around 20 weeks. Cook is 17 weeks pregnant.

The dad’s lawyer, Robert Warmsley had written a ‘warning’ letter to Cook, who has never met the sperm donor, telling her that,

“(the dad) understands, albeit does not agree, with your decision not to reduce.

As you know, his remedies where you refuse to abide by the terms of the agreement, are immense include, but are not limited to, loss of all benefits under the agreement, damages in relation to future care of the children [and] medical costs associated with any extraordinary care the children may need.”

A couple of days after, Cook received another letter from Warmsley urging her to schedule an abortion for one of the foetuses by the end of same day she received the letter.

A day earlier, Cook had argued in an emotional letter to the dad,

“The doctor put in three healthy embryos . . . The chances were high they were all going to take. You knew I was 47 years old. If you knew you only wanted two babies, then why put in three embryos?”

However keen she might be not to abort, the divorced mum seems to be caving in to the pressure from the babies’ dad. The Woodland Hills, California woman said,

“I have to reduce. I’m scared. I don’t want to suffer.”