The family of a Texas woman who died from a pregnancy related condition has sued Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton and several doctors who treated her. The lawsuit claims an abortion could have saved Tierra Walker’s life and argues that the state’s near total ban is unconstitutional.

Walker’s family filed the lawsuit Tuesday in state court in San Antonio. The complaint says doctors refused her requests for an abortion even though she was experiencing a medical emergency that qualified for an exception under Texas law.

Walker was 37 and 20 weeks pregnant when she died in December 2024. According to the lawsuit, her death came two days after her final hospital visit for symptoms of preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia is a potentially fatal pregnancy complication marked by high blood pressure. The Mayo Clinic says treatment for severe preeclampsia often involves the immediate delivery of the baby.

The lawsuit maintains that Walker qualified for an emergency abortion under the state’s strict abortion laws. Instead of receiving the procedure, the complaint says, Walker was repeatedly told that her condition would improve and was sent home.

Her family’s legal challenge places responsibility on Paxton, other state officials, medical institutions and the doctors involved in her care. It argues that Texas abortion restrictions created fear within the medical system and discouraged doctors from acting.

The complaint says 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.”

Along with Paxton, the lawsuit names the Texas Medical Board as a defendant. The board regulates medical practice in Texas and provides guidance to medical professionals working under the state’s laws.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and several doctors who treated Walker are also named as defendants. A hospital spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Paxton’s office and the Texas Medical Board did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. The source report did not include responses from the individual doctors named in the case.

Texas has two laws from 2021 that restrict abortion. The laws prohibit performing or inducing an abortion except during life threatening medical emergencies, and they bar providers from performing abortions when a fetus has detectable cardiac activity.

Another provision allows private citizens to sue abortion providers on behalf of the state. The laws took effect in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that had established a constitutional right to abortion.

Walker’s family claims the defendants violated her right to life under the U.S. Constitution. The complaint also cites a federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay.

The lawsuit further alleges that the Texas abortion bans violate the state constitution. Its claims focus on whether Walker’s condition met the medical emergency exception and whether doctors failed to provide care that the law allowed.

A separate lawsuit was filed Wednesday by two Oklahoma women who said they were forced to travel to other states for abortions. They said they sought the procedures after learning that their babies would not survive pregnancy.

The Oklahoma women were joined by two doctors and an abortion rights group. Their lawsuit claims that forcing women to continue nonviable pregnancies violates their constitutional rights.

Both legal challenges focus on patients who say abortion restrictions prevented them from obtaining care in severe pregnancy circumstances. In Walker’s case, her family contends that the consequences were fatal and that the state’s restrictions left doctors too fearful to intervene.