Crystal Kelley, 30, learned five months into her pregnancy that the child she was carrying on behalf of another couple might be born with disabilities including a cleft lip and palate, a cyst in her brain and heart defects.
A surrogate mother fled across the United States to save the child's life when the couple whose baby she was carrying demanded she have an abortion after discovering that the girl would be born severely disabled.
Crystal Kelley, 30, learned five months into her pregnancy that the child she was carrying on behalf of another couple might be born with disabilities including a cleft lip and palate, a cyst in her brain and heart defects.
The intended parents said that they no longer wanted the child — a girl — and told Miss Kelley that she should have an abortion, saying it was "more humane". They even offered her $10,000 (pounds 6,600) to terminate the pregnancy.
Miss Kelley did not believe in abortion and refused. The couple then said that they would take the child and put her into foster care.
Miss Kelley, who was to be paid $22,000 for the pregnancy, also opposed this proposal. She decided to move 700 miles from her home in Connecticut to Michigan — one of only a few states in the US where a surrogate mother's legal right to decide the child's future would trump those of the parents — and find adoptive parents for the girl.
She moved to Michigan in April last year and the child was born on June 25.
"I think I did what was right for her. I gave her a chance that no one else was prepared to give her," she told The Daily Telegraph. "I am proud I stood up for what I believe was right."
Miss Kelley, already a mother of two daughters aged three and four, decided to become a surrogate parent in August 2011. She had previously had two miscarriages and said her motivation was to help other families who could not conceive.
She was put in touch with a couple and in October 2011 became pregnant using frozen embryos that the couple had stored following in vitro fertilisation. But in February last year, when Miss Kelley was 21 weeks pregnant, an ultrasound scan showed that the child had a cleft lip and palate, a cyst in the brain, and a heart abnormality.
Doctors said that while she would survive, there was only a 25% chance she would have a "normal life" and she would require several heart operations.
Miss Kelley then received a letter from a doctor on behalf of the intended parents that read: "Given the ultrasound findings, [the parents] feel that the interventions required to manage [the baby's medical problems] are overwhelming for an infant, and that it is a more humane option to consider pregnancy termination."
At one point the couple met Miss Kelley to discuss their options. "They were both visibly upset. The mother was crying," she told CNN.
"They said they didn't want to bring a baby into the world only for that child to suffer. They said I should try to be God-like and have mercy on the child and let her go. I told them that they had chosen me to carry and protect this child, and that was exactly what I was going to do. I told them it wasn't their decision to play God."
Miss Kelley said she received an offer of $10,000 to terminate the pregnancy. She asked for $15,000, which was refused. But she said that even before the counter-offer was rejected by the parents, she regretted making it.
"There was a time I was very conflicted - I did not know what to do. A lot of people were telling me a lot of different things," she said.
After failing to persuade her to have an abortion, the intended parents informed Miss Kelley, via lawyers, that they had decided they would take the child but would have it placed in foster care immediately.
'That was not something I was comfortable with," she said. "I wanted to do surrogacy to bring a child into a loving, happy home. Not to have her being placed in the care of the state and being forgotten in a foster home."
Her lawyer advised her that the law was not on her side. Due to the surrogacy agreement she had signed, the child legally belonged to the intended parents and she would have to hand her over. Her only option was, she was told, to move to a state that did not legally recognise surrogacy agreements. She moved to Michigan. "At that point I felt that the intended parents' intention was to abandon the baby and I felt I was the only one standing up for her," she said.
Miss Kelley gave birth to the child, who can only be identified as Baby S, and placed her in the adoptive care of a couple who have experience of caring for disabled children.
The girl will require major heart surgery and other operations to repair her cleft palate, but Miss Kelley is optimistic for the future.
"There is a definite possibility that she could live until she is old," she said. "There is a high death rate in the first year, but she is already nine months."
Miss Kelley said that she saw the child about once a month and planned to continue the relationship. The intended parents have also visited the child but it is unclear whether they plan to have any future involvement in her life. A lawyer for the couple did not respond to requests by The Daily Telegraph for comment.
Miss Kelley said that she had no regrets about her choices, but admitted that she had her critics.
"I have lost friends over this," she said. "People say that the child was not mine and it was not my decision to take … When I entered into this I never expected to have to take on the role of the person that was protecting and providing for her, but that is what I did."
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