Surrogate Mother’s Suit Filled With Twists, Turns

In the fall of 1989, Mark Calvert, an insurance underwriter, and his wife Crispina, a registered nurse, were introduced to Anna L. Johnson to talk about the possibility of surrogate parenting.

The Calverts, who had been married for eight years, could not have children. Crispina Calvert, 36, was unable to carry a baby because uterine tumors forced removal of her womb. Anna Johnson, a 29-year-old licensed vocational nurse and a single parent of a 3-year-old daughter, worked at the same hospital as Calvert and had expressed an interest in being a surrogate mother.

Following a September meeting a year ago between Johnson and the Calverts, medical and psychological evaluations were arranged for the prospective surrogate mother.

The Calverts hired Johnson to bear their child for $10,000. Payments were to be made periodically during the pregnancy and after the birth. The contract between Johnson and the genetic parents included language about the surrogate mother’s care.

An infertility specialist affiliated with UCI Medical Center in Orange used drugs to synchronize the women’s menstrual cycles. On Jan. 19, three fertilized eggs were planted in Johnson’s uterus. One survived, doctors say.

What up to that point was a quiet, unpublicized pregnancy became a public controversy Aug. 13 when Johnson filed suit claiming that she should keep the baby even though she has no genetic link to it.

It marks the first time in the nation that a judge is being asked to decide whether a birth mother has the right to call a child her own when it is the product of another couple’s sperm and egg. Previous court cases have involved contracts in which a surrogate mother’s own egg was fertilized through artificial insemination.

In the weeks following the controversial civil suit, the novel legal battle took a series of bizarre turns and twists.

In mid-August it was learned that Johnson was facing welfare fraud charges for collecting thousands of dollars more in public assistance than she was due. She later pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charges.

Later that month, Johnson accused the couple of trying to kidnap the unborn baby.

Then earlier this month, Johnson’s attorney, Richard C. Gilbert, raised questions about whether the baby was really the Calverts’. He later reversed himself, saying the child was most likely conceived from the couple’s egg and sperm.

In yet another twist last week, Gilbert maintained that Johnson’s Indian ancestry strengthens her claim to the child. He contended that any child she bears falls under the provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act, which is designed to preserve Indian families by requiring that tribes be notified before Indian parents surrender their children for adoption.

Wednesday, Johnson gave birth to a 6-pound, 10-ounce boy at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange. The delivery was more than two weeks ahead of schedule, throwing opposing attorneys into a frenzy of activity.