A Woodland Hills, California, surrogate mother is taking a biological father to court to keep the triplets she is carrying.
The complex story took a negative turn last September when Melissa Cook, 47, was one month pregnant.
Cook, a divorced mother of four, was driving to Lake Tahoe for a vacation when she got an email.
“I saw that I had an email on my phone and told my mom, ‘I need to pull over, so I can read this,'” Cooktold People magazine.
Cook said she was copied on an email the father, a single, deaf postal worker from Georgia sent to his lawyer.
“He wrote, ‘I can’t afford Melissa’s doctor visits … I don’t think I can afford the babies, so I just want to abort all three babies,'” Cook said.
Cook said she later got more emails and letters from the father, known as C.M., and his attorney.
Those emails and letters required Cook to abort one baby instead of three.
If she didn’t, the messages said Cook would be violating the contract she signed.
“I’m not going to abort a healthy baby,” Cook replied.
The Atlantic reported that Cook was implanted with the egg of an anonymous 20-something donor, which created the three embryos with the father’s sperm.
She believes C.M., who reportedly lives with his parents, is not suitable to take care of the babies.
Cook, who is anti-abortion, decided to take legal action, suing for custody of the three children.
Cook’s lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Jan. 5, claims California’s surrogacy law violates due process and equal-protection rights guaranteed in the Constitution.
Cook is hoping the court will rule that her 75-page contract will be ruled unenforceable by the courts so that she will be protected from the consequences of breaching her contract.
In a Jan. 5 statement, Cook said, “I have a deep empathy for men who want children. However, I now think that the basic concept of surrogacy arrangements must be re-examined, scrutinized and reconsidered.”
staff