San Antonio, Texas — The family of Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old Texas woman who died while 20 weeks pregnant, has filed a lawsuit alleging that the state’s abortion restrictions and decisions by her medical providers prevented her from receiving an abortion that could have saved her life.
Walker died in December 2024 after developing preeclampsia, a dangerous pregnancy-related blood-pressure disorder. Her family says she repeatedly asked doctors to end the pregnancy as her health deteriorated, including after experiencing seizures, dangerously high blood pressure and a blood clot. An autopsy listed hypertensive cardiovascular disease and preeclampsia as causes of death.
The lawsuit names Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas Medical Board Executive Director Stephen Brint Carlton, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the Bexar County Hospital District, several physicians and Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales. It alleges “deliberate indifference, discrimination, and medical mistreatment” and challenges the constitutionality of Texas’ abortion ban. Those claims have not yet been adjudicated.
Texas law bans most abortions but contains an exception when, in a physician’s judgment, a pregnancy creates a life-threatening condition or serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function. The central dispute in Walker’s case is whether her condition qualified under that exception and whether doctors were deterred from acting by the legal risks surrounding abortion care.
More than a dozen OB-GYNs who previously reviewed Walker’s medical records for ProPublica said termination should have been discussed as her risks increased, and several said ending the pregnancy would have prevented her death. Her family’s lawsuit now seeks to turn those medical questions into a legal test of how Texas’ abortion restrictions operate in life-threatening pregnancies.
University Health said it could not discuss individual patients or pending litigation but stated that it provides medically appropriate care while complying with applicable laws. Paxton’s office had not publicly responded to the lawsuit as of Wednesday morning.
Sources
- ABC News – MBFC Rating
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