Media Spread More Deadly Lies About Texas’ Heartbeat Law, Just In Time For Midterms

Five years ago, a Texas law that effectively banned abortion beyond six weeks gestation went into effect. Despite saving countless lives, the statute continues to be vilified by the media and abortion activists months before midterm elections. The latest example comes in the form of a wrongful death lawsuit accusing Texas politician and medical professionals of “deliberate indifference, discrimination, and medical mistreatment” that caused the “horrific and tragic death” of a 37-year-old San Antonio woman and her unborn baby. According to court filings from her family, Tierra Walker had a myriad of “chronic health problems, including obesity, uncontrolled hypertension, asthma so severe she had required intubation, a seizure disorder called PNES (psychogenic nonepileptic seizures), Type 2 diabetes with hyperglycemia, gastroparesis, hyperlipidemia, and complicated prior pregnancies” before she learned she was pregnant in September 2024. Opponents of Texas’ heartbeat act claim that most women don’t know they are pregnant until after a baby’s heartbeat is detected. Court documents suggest that Walker, however, knew she was pregnant and already having health complications at five weeks gestation. For the months leading up to her December 2024 death, Walker was in and out of the hospital with complaints of seizures, nausea, vomiting, and other pain associated with high blood pressure. Doctors warned Walker was at a “high risk of death,” but allegedly declined family’s demands for an abortion because they did not believe pregnancy was the root cause of the pregnant woman’s problems. The lawsuit accusing state officials and doctors of contributing to a “preventable death” comes nearly two years after Walker’s passing and a year after Pro Publica, the left-wing outlet known for smearing pro-life politicians and laws, published an article alleging Walker died “After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas.” The real rub comes just three pages into the lawsuit, when the plaintiffs suggest the Lone Star State’s abortion limit is “unconstitutional.” Dr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told The Federalist that “blaming Texas’ law” for Walker’s death is “not only misplaced, but really has no basis in reality.” “My concern with this lawsuit focusing on the Texas abortion law is that we’re actually really missing the underlying root causes of what led to you know not only Tierra’s health being in such poor condition at the beginning of her pregnancy, but also the the possibility of having prevented her death,” she added. Francis was careful to note that she had not personally reviewed Walker’s medical records. From the information included in the court filings, however, she identified “multiple instances where, at least from the available information, it appears that her care was just not handled appropriately.” The autopsy included in court filings ultimately determined that Walker died on December 30, after being sent home from the hospital days before with a preeclampsia diagnosis, “as a result of hypertensive cardiovascular disease with superimposed preeclampsia.” Francis noted that preeclampsia can “very, very rarely, it be seen earlier” than 20 weeks so “if we see things prior to 20 weeks, usually those are not due to preeclampsia.” Regardless of the timing of the preeclampsia diagnosis, the fact that Walker was discharged from the hospital multiple times “is not consistent with any kind of medical standard whatsoever,” Francis warned. The lawsuit maintains that Walker’s doctors failed her by failing to give her the care she needed, but it doesn’t stop there. Walker’s family also blames the “immense culture of fear” about abortion limits on the politicians who passed and enforce pro-life laws. They specifically claim that Paxton and Texas Medical Board Executive Director Stephen Brint Carlton both “imposed a merciless blanket prohibition on abortion that intimidates doctors into inaction and breeds extreme fear among Texas’s medical establishment.” In reality, it’s Democrats and the corporate media who have spent the years since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision deceiving Americans into believing that “women will die” due to policies designed and proven to save lives. Texas’ 2021 heartbeat law already made exceptions for an abortion if a doctor believes “a medical emergency necessitated the abortion” and “the medical condition of the pregnant woman prevented compliance” with the law. The Lone Star State further insulated itself in 2025 by enacting the Life Of The Mother Act, which reaffirms abortion is permitted in instances where women’s lives are at risk for serious injury or death if their pregnancies continue. That act was explicitly designed to provide healthcare professionals “with additional clarity around Texas’ pro-life laws.” Yet abortion activists, attorneys, and others consulted to commentate in corporate media stories about Walker’s case continually claim that doctors are confused and hesitant to adequately treat their patients. “Four and a half years out from the Dobbs decision, I don’t know that there is any justification for any physician to to claim that they don’t understand their their state’s law for a number of reasons,” Francis said. “We certainly have had plenty of time now for physicians to familiarize themselves if they’re practicing in a state that has one of these laws. It certainly is inherent upon them to to understand their law.” In Walker’s case specifically, Francis “didn’t see any clear indication in the court filing that any doctor had said to them, ‘yes, we think that we should end her pregnancy, but we can’t because of Texas’s law.’” Even if that is true, Francis said it would not be a correct interpretation of Texas statute. Francis also noted that while pregnancy may have exacerbated some of Walker’s conditions, her symptoms likely would not have been immediately solved if she had an abortion. “[Walker] very clearly, especially once she had the diagnosis of preeclampsia at 20 weeks, very definitely would have qualified to have an early delivery under Texas law,” Francis said. Francis emphasized that the Texas Medical Board in particular was “very clear in their guidance that they provided.” “The Texas Supreme Court has already ruled that Texas law allows for doctors to intervene even when a woman isn’t imminently facing death, but when she has a complication of her pregnancy that could potentially lead to her death, that that doctors can intervene. And that case, the Amanda Zurawski case was widely publicized nationwide, but certainly in the state of Texas.” Walker’s case is one of many tragedies hijacked by abortion propagandists to blame pro-life laws for the consequences of abortion and medical malpractice. None of the 50 states, including those with strict abortion limits, prohibit doctors from treating complications like miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, or preeclampsia. Yet, corporate media had no problem accusing Texas and its elected officials of indirectly killing Walker. The family filed the petition mere months before the statute of limitations for a wrongful death suit in Texas was set to expire. Corporate media, however, used the timing of the lawsuit to target Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, who is named by the Walker family as a defendant and has a track record of pro-life enforcement as Texas attorney general, just two months ahead of November midterm elections. Multiple outlets not only incorporated Paxton’s name in their headlines, but also made him the featured image. CBS concluded its article explaining the case with a quote from Tierra Walker’s mother telling Paxton specifically to “go to hell.” “The fact that that Ken Paxton is named in the lawsuit makes it easy for political fodder. But I would certainly hope that people would not get distracted by the political fight that’s going on right now, and rather look at what really was the root cause of Tierra’s death. It was not the Texas law. It was, I think, really a lack of attention to how sick she was, and and managing that appropriately,” Francis said. Jordan Boyd is an award-winning staff writer at The Federalist and producer of “The Federalist Radio Hour.” Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx. Abortionabortion propagandaAmber ThurmanCBScorporate mediaKen PaxtonPro PublicaTexas Heartbeat ActTierra Walker