Surrogate mother with triplets refuses to have abortion at request of biological parents.

At 17 weeks pregnant Brittneyrose Torres is in a legal battle to save the life of one of the babies she is carrying. The young mother from the US is acting as a paid surrogate for a couple who can’t have kids of their own.

The New York Post reports that Torres was implanted with two fertilized eggs, one of which split in two forming into male twins and a third female fetus.

She said that the parents were excited at first about having three babies. But around week 12, they began to change their mind and told Torres that an increased risk of developmental disabilities made aborting the girl necessary.

Torres told The New York Post that her clients “knew from the beginning that we wouldn’t want to abort unless it was a life-and-death situation. We would never want to abort a baby’s life.”

Torres, who already has her own child,  said she checked with the doctors and there were no abnormalities with the triplets.

She said, “I told [the biological mother] I couldn’t abort one of the children. I could not emotionally and physically do that at nearly 13 weeks. I believe it will be killing this baby.”

Under her contract with the biological parents, Torres is to receive at least $30,000 — $25,000 for carrying one baby and $5,000 extra for carrying two or more.

Some of her stipend has been cut for refusing the abortion, which the parents claim they have a right to demand due to a provision in their contract with the surrogate.

Torres told The New York Post she offered to adopt the female fetus instead of aborting her, but the couple refused.

Jennifer Lahl from the Center for Bioethics and Culture (CBC), a nonprofit anti-surrogacy organization told Yahoo:

“Surrogacy contracts almost always include an abortion clause,” Lahl said “[The biological parents] get to decide if and when there’s a termination. It’s the expectation that she works for them. It’s an ugly way to handle women’s bodies and pregnancy.”

This comes just weeks after another US mother, Melissa Cook found herself in a similar situation. She was contracted by a man to act as a surrogate and also was implanted with three embryos. She told The New York Post when all three of them took and she became pregnant with triplets the father of the babies, who used eggs from a donor demanded a selective abortion.

Cook told the father “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?”

The two high profile cases come as New York lifting its ban on commercial surrogacy, which was enacted in 1993.

In Australia commercial surrogacy is illegal in all states and territories. For residents of NSW, Queensland and the ACT, entering a commercial surrogacy agreement overseas is also banned though earlier this year family Court Chief Justice Diana Bryant and Federal Circuit Court Chief Judge John called for the ban on surrogate compensation to be lifted in Australia.

Brittneyrose Torres says she has come forward with her story to warn other women “I want other women not to be put in this situation,” Torres said “They shouldn’t be forced to do something they don’t want to.”