The family of a Texas woman who died from pregnancy complications after being denied an abortion is suing Attorney General Ken Paxton for his enforcement of the Lone Star State’s restrictions on abortions.
Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old mother to a teenage son, died of preeclampsia at roughly 20 weeks pregnant in late 2024. Her family argues her death was preventable if she had been given an abortion when her symptoms first began, despite Texas’s prohibition on the procedure.
Walker’s family filed a wrongful death suit on Wednesday against her medical team at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, as well as Paxton, the Republican Senate candidate in Texas, for his role in enforcing the abortion statute.
Paxton has been a strong supporter of the law, which prohibits elective abortions after a fetal heartbeat has been detected, typically at six weeks of pregnancy, except when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother.
The Walker family argues that the severity of the law and its punishments created an environment in which doctors and medical staff were negligently reluctant to offer Tierra an abortion even as her condition worsened.
The lawsuit accuses Paxton and the Texas Medical Board director, Stephen Carlton, of having “imposed a merciless blanket prohibition on abortion that intimidates doctors into inaction and breeds extreme fear among Texas’s medical establishment.”
“At every turn, Texas’s political and medical establishments not only failed but actively harmed Ms. Walker,” the lawsuit alleges.
The Washington Examiner contacted Paxton’s campaign with a request for comment on the lawsuit.
Here is everything to know about the case:
What happened to Tierra Walker?
Walker discovered she was five weeks pregnant during an emergency room visit in mid-September 2024.
Three years before, she had developed preeclampsia, or severe and sudden high blood pressure that can cause kidney damage, when pregnant with twins. The condition resulted in Walker having a stillbirth.
Before becoming pregnant again, Walker was working on controlling her obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure with the help of a GLP-1 medication.
Walker was sent home in September 2024 on adjusted blood pressure medication, but after several seizure episodes early in pregnancy, Walker requested an abortion, which was denied.
Walker was in and out of the hospital throughout her pregnancy, including prolonged stays for observation. On Dec. 27, 2024, Walker was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with preeclampsia but was discharged the next day.
Days later, Walker was found unresponsive at home by her 15-year-old son. Her autopsy cited preeclampsia as a cause of death, as well as an enlarged heart, fluid in her lungs, and kidney damage.
What do medical professionals say about her case?
Multiple physicians not affiliated with Walker’s care team have said after reviewing her case that she should not have died from her preeclampsia.
ProPublica gave a condensed version of Walker’s medical records to more than a dozen OB-GYNs when the outlet first reported on her death in November 2025.
The outlet reported that, with Walker’s persistently high blood pressure, it would have been standard medical practice to advise her of the serious health risk of continuing the pregnancy. Some reportedly even called her condition a “ticking time bomb.”
Dr. Christina Francis, head of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told CBS News that Walker’s death was “likely preventable” and she “would likely still be alive today” if she had been stabilized immediately rather than sent home.
Did Walker need an abortion at 20 weeks pregnant?
If Walker’s care team chose to deliver her child at only 20 weeks of gestation, that would not have constituted an abortion, Francis told the Washington Examiner.
Francis said there is a major difference between a risky delivery in which the child likely will not survive after birth and ending the life of an unborn child still in the womb.
“When faced with a serious complication, such as those faced by Tierra Walker, physicians can intervene to protect the mother’s life by delivering the baby, even when the child’s life expectancy is uncertain due to prematurity,” Francis said.
Although they are rare, there have been several cases in which infants have survived being born at 21 weeks, requiring long-term neonatal intensive care. Being born severely premature also increases the child’s risk of developing chronic conditions such as lung disease, cognitive impairment, and vision or hearing loss.
Nevertheless, Francis said that sometimes, extremely early delivery “preserves the possibility of neonatal survival while also protecting the life of the mother.”
Will the lawsuit affect Paxton’s Senate campaign?
Attorneys for the Walker family denied that the lawsuit is meant to harm Paxton’s campaign, but Paxton’s stalwart defense of his state’s anti-abortion statute could sour swing voters who would like to see fewer regulations on abortion in severe cases such as Walker’s.
As attorney general, Paxton has filed several lawsuits against healthcare providers and organizations that ship the abortion pill mifepristone into his jurisdiction from out of state in violation of Texas law. Multiple anti-abortion groups, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and the National Right to Life Committee, have endorsed Paxton for Senate.
But an overwhelming majority of Texans would like to include more explicit exceptions to the state’s abortion law in cases like Walker’s, where the mother’s physical health is in jeopardy, but her condition is not yet fatal, according to polling from past years.
TEXAS FARM BUREAU ENDORSES KEN PAXTON AFTER JAMES TALARICO FACED FALLOUT FROM VEGAN COMMENTS
A 2025 public opinion survey from the University of Houston found 82% of Texas voters supported allowing an abortion “to preserve the woman’s physical health,” which is looser than the current standard of her life being at risk.
In a separate poll conducted in 2024 by the University of Texas at Austin, 85% of Texans supported legal access to abortion if the woman’s health is seriously endangered.
Continue reading...
[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
