The family of a 37-year-old woman who died while pregnant filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other medical and state actors, alleging that Texas law prevented her from getting an abortion that may have saved her life.
The lawsuit is the first over a death linked to an abortion ban.
Tierra Walker died in 2024 when she was 20 weeks pregnant. The lawsuit states that she “repeatedly asked for an abortion to save her life” as her health quickly deteriorated from a medical condition known as preeclampsia.
“For months, Ms. Walker had been asking for termination of her pregnancy — even though this was a wanted pregnancy — because she did not think she would survive the pregnancy,” the lawsuit filed in Bexar County reads. “Tragically, she was right. An abortion at any point during her pregnancy would have saved her life.”
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The court filing alleges that Paxton used his authority as attorney general to “perpetuate a climate of extreme fear throughout the state’s medical community, deliberately ignoring that abortion is the standard of care for many emergent health conditions that arise during pregnancy.”
Paxton has strongly opposed abortion while in office — filing lawsuits over abortion pills, threatening to prosecute doctors who carry out the procedures and defending Texas’ abortion ban in court.
The Republican attorney general is running for U.S. Senate and locked in a close race against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, who has been a staunch advocate for reinstating abortion protections in the state.
Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
Following the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, abortions are illegal in Texas with narrow exceptions for pregnant mothers who face life-threatening conditions. The state legislature passed a law in 2025 — one year after Walker’s death — that attempts to clarify when abortions can be performed, but the legislation did not materially expand access to the procedure.
Walker’s family argued that the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and some of its staff, which were also named in the lawsuit, failed to appropriately screen her or provide life-saving treatment for her serious medical conditions.
“They continued to do nothing even as University Health staff noted that she was ‘at high risk of clinical deterioration and/or death’ and her pregnancy was a ‘barrier’ to her care,” the lawsuit states.
The medical examiner concluded that Walker died of hypertensive cardiovascular disease with superimposed preeclampsia. According to the Cleveland Clinic, preeclampsia is a “serious” blood pressure condition that can develop during pregnancy and can cause organ damage as well as brain injuries.
“The treatment for preeclampsia is immediate delivery — which in Texas before full term is legally an abortion,” the lawsuit states.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio acknowledged The Washington Sun’s request for comment but said it did not have any information to offer at this time.
ProPublica first reported on the details that led to Walker’s death in November 2025.
Attorneys for the family described Walker as an “anchor” and said she leaves behind a husband, a disabled mother whom she cared for and a teenage son.
“Ms. Walker was a smart, passionate, ambitious human being. She was an educator with a Teacher of the Year award, a registered dental assistant, and a certified paralegal who constantly strove to educate herself and support her family,” the filing states.
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