Parents Tell Surrogate to Abort Triplet, She Refuses

When 26-year-old Brittneyrose Torres of Thousand Oaks, Calif., read on Facebook about a couple who couldn't have children, she decided to try surrogacy and agreed to carry one of their children for $25,000 and two or more for an extra $5,000. But not long after learning that the fraternal twin boy and girl had become triplets when the male egg split into two, the biological parents demanded that Torres abort the girl, claiming an increased risk for developmental disorders, reports the New York Post. "I told her I couldn't abort one of the children," Torres says. "I could not emotionally and physically do that at nearly 13 weeks. I believe it will be killing this baby."

Torres, who is now 17 weeks pregnant and has refused to abort since being just shy of 13 weeks along, has offered to adopt the girl, but the parents have refused. They say that their contract allows them to order an abortion, and they've suspended some of their payments to Torres for breach of contract. But Torres says that the parents "knew from the beginning that we wouldn't want to abort unless it was a life-and-death situation," which her doctor says does not appear to be the case. A CBS News legal expert calls it a "terribly emotional" case and says that if Torres really wants to keep the child, "she really ought to get her lawyers to go to court and get an injunction" or else "you have a mess on your hands financially." (Check out the woman this man chose to be his surrogate.)