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“TICKING TIME BOMB”: A PREGNANT MOTHER KEPT GETTING SICKER. SHE
DIED AFTER SHE COULDN’T GET AN ABORTION IN TEXAS.  
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Kavitha Surana and Lizzie Presser
November 19, 2025
ProPublica
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_ ProPublica has found multiple cases of women with underlying health
conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions. Tierra
Walker, a 37-year-old mother, was told by doctors there was no
emergency before preeclampsia killed her. _

A photo of Tierra Walker and her son, JJ, sits on a desk in her
bedroom at her home in San Antonio. Walker died after doctors told her
she didn’t need an abortion during her high-risk pregnancy., Photos
by Lexi Parra

 

Tierra Walker had reached her limit. In the weeks since she’d
learned she was pregnant, the 37-year-old dental assistant had been
wracked by unexplained seizures and mostly confined to a hospital cot.
With soaring blood pressure and diabetes, she knew she was at high
risk of developing preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication that could
end her life. 

Her mind was made up on the morning of Oct. 14, 2024: For the sake of
her 14-year-old son, JJ, she needed to ask her doctor for an abortion
to protect her health. 

“Wouldn’t you think it would be better for me to not have the
baby?” she asked a physician at Methodist Hospital Northeast near
San Antonio, according to her aunt. Just a few years earlier, Walker
had developed a dangerous case of preeclampsia that had led to the
stillbirth of her twins.

But the doctor, her family said, told her what many other medical
providers would say in the weeks that followed: There was no
emergency; nothing was wrong with her pregnancy, only her health. 

Just after Christmas, on his birthday, JJ found his mom draped over
her bed, lifeless. An autopsy would later confirm what she had feared:
Preeclampsia killed her at 20 weeks pregnant.

[A teenage boy in a blue room looks solemnly off camera.][JJ’s hand
holds a phone showing a photo of him, his mom and his stepdad smiling
at the camera.]Every day, JJ revisits photos and videos of his mom.

Walker’s death is one of multiple cases ProPublica is investigating
in which women with underlying health conditions died after they were
unable to end their pregnancies.

Walker had known that abortion was illegal in Texas, but she had
thought that hospitals could make an exception for patients like her,
whose health was at risk. 

The reality: In states that ban abortion, patients with chronic
conditions and other high-risk pregnancies often have nowhere to
turn. 

They enter pregnancy sick and are expected to get sicker. Yet
lawmakers who wrote the bans have refused to create exceptions for
health risks. As a result, many hospitals and doctors, facing the
threat of criminal charges, no longer offer these patients
terminations, ProPublica found in interviews with more than 100
OB-GYNs across the country. Instead, these women are left to gamble
with their lives. 

As Walker’s blood pressure swung wildly and a blood clot threatened
to kill her, she continued to press doctors at prenatal appointments
and emergency room visits, asking if it was safe for her to continue
the pregnancy. Although one doctor documented in her medical record
that she was at “high risk of clinical deterioration and/or
death,” she was told over and over again that she didn’t need to
worry, her relatives say. More than 90 doctors were involved in
Walker’s care, but not one offered her the option to end her
pregnancy, according to medical records.   

Walker’s case unfolded during the fall of 2024, when the dangers of
abortion bans were a focus of protests, media coverage and electoral
campaigns across the country. ProPublica had revealed that five women
— three
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in Texas
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alone
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— had died after they were unable to access standard reproductive
care under the new bans. 

ProPublica condensed more than 6,500 pages of Walker’s medical
records into a summary of her care with the guidance of two high-risk
pregnancy specialists. More than a dozen OB-GYNs reviewed the case for
ProPublica and said that since Walker had persistently high blood
pressure, it would have been standard medical practice to advise her
of the serious risks of her pregnancy early on, to revisit the
conversation as new complications emerged and to offer termination at
any point if she wanted it. Some described her condition as a
“ticking time bomb.” Had Walker ended her pregnancy, every expert
believed, she would not have died. 

Many said that her case illustrated why they think all patients need
the freedom to choose how much risk they are willing to take during
pregnancy. Walker expressed that she didn’t want to take that risk,
her family says. She had a vibrant life, a husband and son whom she
loved. 

Under Texas’ abortion law, though, that didn’t matter.

[A woman tenderly cradles an urn inscribed with the words “Always
loved, never forgotten, forever missed.”]Walker’s mother, Pamela
Walker, holds her daughter’s ashes.

“I DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH MORE I CAN TAKE”

On a hot September day, Walker was lying down with JJ after a walk
with their two small dogs, Milo and Twinkie, when she started shaking
uncontrollably. 

Terrified, JJ called 911, asking for an ambulance. 

As the only child of a single mom, JJ had always considered Walker his
closest friend, coach and protector wrapped in one. In their mobile
home, JJ was greeted each morning by his mom’s wide smile and
upturned eyes, as she shot off vocabulary quizzes or grilled him on
state capitals. He loved how fearlessly she went after what she
wanted; in 2021, she had proposed to her boyfriend, Eric Carson, and
the two eloped. She’d just been talking about moving the family to
Austin for a promotion she was offered at a dental clinic. 

[A man rests his head in his hand, looking longingly off camera.][A
photo rests on a white sheet. The photo shows a man in a white suit
and a woman in a white gown, gazing lovingly into each other’s
eyes.]Eric Carson and Walker married in 2021.

At the hospital, JJ was shocked to see her so pale and helpless, with
wires snaking from her head and arms. 

To Walker’s surprise, doctors quickly discovered that she was five
weeks pregnant. They also noted hypertension at levels so high that it
reduces circulation to major organs and can cause a heart attack or
stroke. That, and her weight, age and medical history, put Walker at
an increased risk of developing preeclampsia, a pregnancy-related
blood pressure disorder, said Dr. Jennifer Lewey, director of the Penn
Women’s Cardiovascular Health Program and expert in hypertension.

“If I’m seeing a patient in her first trimester and her blood
pressure is this uncontrolled — never mind anything else — what
I’m talking about is: Your pregnancy will be so high risk, do we
need to think about terminating the pregnancy and getting your health
under control?”  

As Walker’s first trimester continued, she kept seizing. Her body
convulsed, her eyes rolled back and she was often unable to speak for
up to 30 minutes at a time. Some days, the episodes came in rapid
waves, with little relief. 

For three weeks, she stayed at Methodist hospitals; doctors were not
able to determine what was causing the spasms. Walker couldn’t get
out of bed, in case a seizure made her fall, and this left her
vulnerable to blood clots. She soon developed one in her leg that
posed a new lethal threat: It could travel to her lungs and kill her
instantly.

Carson watched over her during the day and her aunt Latanya Walker
took the night shift. She was panicked that her tough niece, whose
constant mantra was “quit your crying,” now seemed defeated. One
evening, during Walker’s third hospitalization, when she was about 9
weeks pregnant, she told Latanya she’d had a vision during a
seizure: Her grandmother and aunt, who had died years earlier, were
preparing a place for her on the other side.

“You better tell them you’re not ready to go,” Latanya said. 

“I don’t know how much more I can take of this,” Walker
whispered. 

[A woman, whose long curly hair blows in the wind, closes her eyes and
looks toward the sky.]                                
   Walker's aunt, Latanya Walker, tried to advocate for her niece
during her hospitalizations.

The next morning, Walker called for a doctor and asked about ending
her pregnancy for the sake of her health. “When we get you under
control, then everything will go smoothly,” the doctor replied,
Latanya recalled. The physician on the floor was not an OB-GYN with
the expertise to give a high-risk consultation, but the Walkers
didn’t realize that this mattered. By the time the doctor left the
room, her aunt said, tears streamed down Walker’s cheeks.

Dr. Elizabeth Langen, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in Michigan
who reviewed Walker’s case, said a physician comfortable with
high-risk pregnancies should have counseled her on the dangers of
continuing and offered her an abortion. “The safest thing for her
was to terminate this pregnancy, that’s for sure.”

During Walker’s many hospital and prenatal visits, 21 OB-GYNs were
among the more than 90 physicians involved in her care. None of them
counseled her on the option — or the health benefits — of a
termination, according to medical records. 

In Texas, the law bars “aiding and abetting” an illegal abortion.
As a result, many physicians have avoided even mentioning it,
according to interviews with dozens of doctors. 

In her condition, Walker couldn’t fathom leaving the state. When her
aunt suggested ordering abortion medication online, Walker was worried
she could go to jail. She was spending so much time in the hospital;
what if she got caught taking the pills? 

At 12 weeks pregnant, she was admitted to University Hospital. Doctors
there noted that even on anticoagulation medication, the clotting in
Walker’s leg was so profound that she needed a thrombectomy to
remove it. 

“At this point, we’ve gone from ‘complicated, but within the
realm of normal’ to ‘we’ve got someone with a major procedure in
pregnancy that tells us something isn’t going well,’” said Dr.
Will Williams, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in New Orleans,
where an abortion ban is also in place. “In my practice, we’d have
a frank discussion about whether this is a person we’d offer a
termination to at the point of thrombectomy.” 

ProPublica reached out to five physicians who were involved in key
moments of Walker’s care: the hospitalist on duty on Oct. 14, 2024,
when she asked about ending her pregnancy; three OB-GYNs; and a
hospitalist on duty at the time of her thrombectomy. They did not
respond. The hospitals Walker visited, including those run by
University Health System and Methodist Healthcare, which is co-owned
by HCA, did not comment on Walker’s care, despite permission from
her family. Although the Walkers have not pursued legal action, they
have engaged a lawyer. A University Health System spokesperson said
that it is the company’s policy not to comment on potential
litigation. 

In her second trimester, Walker’s seizures continued and her
hypertension remained out of control. At an appointment on Dec. 27, at
around 20 weeks, a doctor noted spiking blood pressure and sent her to
University Hospital’s ER. There, doctors recorded a diagnosis of
preeclampsia.  

The experts who reviewed Walker’s vital signs for ProPublica said
her blood pressure of 174 over 115 was so concerning at that point,
she needed to be admitted and monitored. Most questioned her
doctor’s choice not to label her condition as severe. The treatment
for severe preeclampsia, which points to a problem with the placenta,
is delivery — or, at 20 weeks, an abortion. 

Instead, doctors lowered her blood pressure with medication and sent
her home. 

[A man sits, looking at the camera, on a bed in a room with purple
walls displaying family photos.]Carson in the bedroom he shared with
Walker

Three days later, JJ crawled into bed with his mom and fed her soup.
“I’m so sorry,” Walker croaked. “It’s your birthday and it
shouldn’t be like this.”  

He told his mom it was okay. He hadn’t expected laser tag or a trip
to Dave & Buster’s this year. Over the past few months, when his mom
was home, he had tried his best to make things easier on her, walking
the dogs when she was out of breath, checking in every hour or so with
a hug. JJ knew that after missing so many days of work, she had lost
her job. She was stressed about getting enough food for the house. He
was relieved when he heard her snoring — at least she was resting.

That afternoon, when his stepdad was out grocery shopping and his
grandmother was just getting back from dialysis, he cracked open the
door to Walker’s room. 

His mom was lying face-down in bed, as if she had fallen over while
getting up. JJ ran over and tried to find any sign she was breathing.
When he called 911, a dispatcher coached him to slide her to the rug
and start CPR.

“I need you,” he shouted as he leaned over his mom, pressing down
on her chest. “I need you!”

[A teen boy is seated in a chair labeled “reserved.” Two women
stand on either side of him with their heads bowed and hands resting
on his shoulders.]                                  
       JJ receives prayers at church in San Antonio.

 “WE HAVE TO ALLOW FOR MORE EXCEPTIONS”

The anti-abortion activists who helped shape America’s latest wave
of abortion bans have long seen health exemptions as a loophole that
would get in the way of their goals. They fear such exceptions, if
included in the laws, would allow virtually anyone to terminate a
pregnancy
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In Idaho, an anti-abortion leader testifying at a state Senate hearing
suggested doctors would use health exceptions to give abortions to
patients with headaches. 

In South Dakota, a pregnant Republican lawmaker with a high risk of
blood clots begged her colleagues to consider creating a health
exception that would protect her; her bill never made it to a
hearing. 

In Tennessee, an anti-abortion lobbyist with no medical training
fought and defeated an amendment to the state law that would allow a
health exception to “prevent” an emergency. He testified in the
state Capitol that the carve-out was too broad since some pregnancy
complications “work themselves out.” 

The refusal to entertain these broader exceptions is particularly
consequential given the state of women’s health. Women are entering
pregnancy older and sicker than they have in decades. The rate of
blood pressure disorders in pregnancy has more than doubled since
1993; they now affect up to 15% of U.S. pregnancies. And they’re
most prevalent in states with restrictive abortion policies, according
to a 2023 study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology
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disease falls heaviest on Black women, like Walker, for an array of
reasons: neighborhood disinvestment, poor access to health care and
discrimination in the medical system. Cuts to Medicaid funding and
changes to the Affordable Care Act are likely to exacerbate these
problems, according to experts.  

Other countries give pregnant women and their doctors far more control
over the medical decision to terminate. Across Europe, for example,
most laws permit abortion for any reason through the first trimester,
when more than 90% of abortions occur. After that gestational limit,
their statutes also tend to include broad health exceptions that can
be used for chronic conditions, illnesses that develop in pregnancy,
fetal anomalies and, in some countries, mental health. 

U.S. abortion bans generally restrict interventions to a far more
limited set of health risks, like a “life-threatening medical
emergency” or “substantial and irreversible” harm to major
organs. A small subset of lawyers and doctors argue that the law can
and should be interpreted to cover patients with chronic conditions
that are worsening in pregnancy. But the vaguely written bans threaten
criminal penalties for performing an illegal abortion — in Texas, up
to 99 years behind bars. In practice, few hospitals grant health
exceptions
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ProPublica’s reporting has found.

Dr. Jessica Tarleton, an OB-GYN who provides abortions in South
Carolina, recalled how much changed at her hospital when the state’s
ban was put in place: OB-GYNs who want to provide an abortion to a
patient with a health risk now need to get a maternal-fetal medicine
specialist to explicitly write in the chart that it is necessary, in
compliance with the law. Not many doctors are willing to do so. 

“Some people were not because of their personal beliefs, and some
because they didn’t want to be involved in any kind of potential
legal actions,” Tarleton said. “They didn’t want their opinion
to have anything to do with a patient getting an abortion or not.” 

Recently, for example, Cristina Nuñez sued two hospitals in El Paso
for their inaction in her care in 2023. She had diabetes, uncontrolled
blood pressure and end-stage kidney disease when she learned she was
unexpectedly pregnant at 36. Doctors wrote in her medical record that
“she needs termination based on threat to maternal life or
health,” but Nuñez alleged that one hospital failed to find an
anesthesiologist willing to participate. She remained pregnant for
weeks, even as blood clots turned her right arm black, until an
advocacy organization threatened legal action and she was able to
obtain an abortion. The lawsuit is ongoing. 

This year, Texas Republicans passed legislation with minor
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to their ban after ProPublica reported the deaths of three miscarrying
women who did not receive critical abortion care during emergencies.
In the updated law, an emergency still needs to be
“life-threatening” to qualify for an abortion, but it no longer
needs to be “imminent.” Doctors expect that most hospitals still
won’t provide abortions to women like Walker who have dangerous
chronic conditions but no certain threat to their lives. 

ProPublica asked Sen. Bryan Hughes, the author of Texas’ abortion
ban, about how the specific complications Walker faced should be
treated by doctors under the amended law. When her pregnancy began,
would she be eligible for an abortion due to her health? Would she
need to wait for a diagnosis of severe preeclampsia? Is there a reason
the law doesn’t include an exception for health risks? ProPublica
put the same questions to the 20 state senators who co-wrote the
bipartisan amendment. 

Only Sen. Carol Alvarado, a Democrat, responded. In her view, the
amendment was far too narrow. But, she said, her Republican colleagues
defer to the far right of their base and oppose broader exceptions.

“You can’t proclaim to be pro-life, but you’re passing laws that
are endangering women and causing death,” she said. “We have to
allow for more exceptions.” 

[Two women, seen from behind, wrap their arms around each other and
look toward the sunset.]                              
 Latanya and Pamela in San Antonio

“SO YOU’D RATHER LET SOMEBODY DIE?”

After Walker died, her family felt bewildered by her medical care. The
doctors had assured them that her baby was healthy and she would be
fine. The autopsy found that the fetus was indeed healthy, at just
under a pound and measuring 9 inches long. But it showed that Walker
had  hypertensive cardiovascular disease with preeclampsia, along
with an enlarged heart, dangerously full of fluid, and kidney damage
— signs that her condition had declined even more than she knew. 

In Carson’s mind, the many doctors they saw cast the risks as
challenges that would be overcome if his wife followed directions.
“She was doing what they told her to do,” he said. He couldn’t
understand how no one suggested ending the pregnancy to keep Walker
safe. “Nobody said nothing.” 

Latanya worried the law played a role. “They didn’t want to offer
to end the pregnancy, because the government or someone says you
can’t? So you’d rather let somebody die?” she said. “Now we
are the ones that have to suffer.” 

JJ couldn’t bear to stay in the home where he had found his mom, so
he moved in with Latanya. Each day, he scrolls through old videos on
the computer so he can hear Walker’s voice. 

Latanya does everything she can to support him, but she knows she
can’t erase his pain. 

She recalls watching JJ steady himself at Walker’s funeral, to see
her one last time. Until that point, he hadn’t cried.

When he finally faced the open casket where his mom lay holding her
fetus, JJ sank to his knees, overcome. His aunt, uncles, cousins and
grandmother gathered around him and rocked him in their arms.

_Kavitha Surana has been reporting on changes to reproductive health
care access since Roe v. Wade was overturned._

_Lizzie Presser is a journalist covering health and social policy._

_Mariam Elba_ [[link removed]]_ and
__Nick McMillan_ [[link removed]]_
contributed research._

 

* abortion restrictions
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* texas
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* unnecessary deaths
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