Family Sues Texas Officials Over Woman's Death, Citing Abortion Ban

The family of a Texas woman who died from a pregnancy-related condition has filed a lawsuit against the state's Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, and the doctors who treated her, alleging that an abortion could have saved her life and that the state's near-total ban on the procedure is unconstitutional.

The suit, filed Tuesday in state court in San Antonio, was brought by the family of Tierra Walker. It claims her doctors refused her requests for an abortion even though she was experiencing a medical emergency that qualified for an exception under Texas' strict abortion laws.

Walker, 37, was 20 weeks pregnant when she died in December 2024, two days after her final hospital visit for symptoms of preeclampsia, a potentially fatal pregnancy complication marked by high blood pressure. The standard treatment for preeclampsia is immediate delivery of the baby or an abortion, and the complaint states that Walker qualified for an emergency abortion under Texas law. Instead, according to the lawsuit, she was repeatedly told her condition would improve and was sent home.

The lawsuit argues that Paxton and other state officials have imposed a "merciless blanket prohibition on abortion" that intimidates doctors into inaction and breeds extreme fear among Texas' medical establishment.

Named as defendants alongside Paxton are the Texas Medical Board, which regulates medical practice in the state and issues guidance to professionals, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and several doctors who treated Walker. Paxton's office and the other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

A pair of 2021 Texas laws prohibit performing or inducing an abortion, with an exception for life-threatening medical emergencies, and bar providers from performing abortions if a fetus has detectable cardiac activity. A novel provision of the ban also allows private citizens to sue providers on behalf of the state. The laws took effect in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which had established a constitutional right to abortion.

The lawsuit filed by Walker's family claims the defendants violated her right to life under the U.S. Constitution and a federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care regardless of a patient's ability to pay. It further alleges that Texas' abortion bans violate the state constitution.