How state abortion bans are affecting women's health nationwide

Brian Lehrer (0:05)

This is Brian Lehrer's Daily Politics Podcast. It's Friday, September 18th.

We begin today's show in Texas, where Attorney General Ken Paxton, who's now running for US Senate, was sued this week by the family of a woman who died after she couldn't get an abortion.

Tierra Walker died in December of 2024, 20 weeks into her pregnancy, in a state with a near total abortion ban. On Tuesday, her family sued the hospital and doctors who treated her, along with Paxton, who has taken a leading role in enforcing that ban. The 19th reports it's the first lawsuit over a death linked to an abortion ban. It comes as new reporting shows what these bands are doing to pregnancy care more broadly. A ProPublica analysis published last week found the number of women dying after an ectopic pregnancy has nearly doubled in this country, with the steepest rise in states that ban abortion. Meanwhile, abortion is on the ballot this November in four states. It's Idaho, Missouri, Nevada and Virginia. Joining us now to discuss the lawsuit, the Senate race and what these bands are doing to pregnancy care is Shefali Luthra, reproductive health reporter at The 19th. Shefali, welcome to WNYC.

Shefali Luthra (1:26)

Thank you so much for having me.

Brian Lehrer (1:27)

So can you start us off by, I think, just introducing us to Tiara Walker? Who was she? How did she die?

Shefali Luthra (1:35)

Right. So this is a really, really heart wrenching case that was unearthed by a ProPublica. Tiara Walker lived in Texas. She was a mother, she was a wife, a caregiver, a niece, all of these different personas, identities. Her family really described her as the glue who held her family together. She discovered when she was receiving emergency medical care that she was pregnant. This was clearly not a planned pregnancy and it very quickly became medically very complicated. She had a lot of chronic health conditions that made her pregnancy much more dangerous. Diabetes, hypertension, severe asthma, obesity. And she was repeatedly hospitalized over her pregnancy. And according to her lawsuit and her family, she kept asking for an abortion and doctors wouldn't give her one and wouldn't tell her how to get one. Instead telling her that, in their words, the baby is fine.

And then days after one of her discharges from the hospital in San Antonio, she died of preeclampsia and her family has sued because their argument is that if she had gotten an abortion, she would have lived. And this is what the doctors who reviewed ProPublica's investigation also found, that an abortion probably could have saved her life because being pregnant really complicated all of these medical conditions she already had.

And as you mentioned, this case is really, really significant because there have been a lot of lawsuits over abortion bans. There have been a lot of women whose debts have been linked to abortion bans, but we haven't seen a case quite like this, a case that is suing people like Attorney General Ken Paxton, a case filed because of someone's death, and a case that is arguing that Texas' abortion ban is unconstitutional because the lawyers say it violates the right to life that is guaranteed by the federal constitution and by Texas' constitution.

Brian Lehrer (3:41)

What's preeclampsia?

Shefali Luthra (3:43)

Preeclampsia is a high-risk blood condition. It is quite dangerous and it can be treated, but ultimately at a certain point, when your blood pressure is as high as hers was and is not responsive to treatment from medication, the only treatment for it can ultimately be ending the pregnancy, delivering before the pregnancy is viable and functionally in abortion. And in her medical records, in fact, a doctor caring for Tiara Walker wrote that delivering the baby could be the best treatment for her preeclampsia, but this was never an option made available to her.

Brian Lehrer (4:21)

It's interesting that you bring up options because I know that some Texans have gotten abortions by like leaving the state or ordering pills online. Why weren't those options for Tiara?

Shefali Luthra (4:32)

So she could not travel out of state. Her illnesses were quite substantial. She was getting seizures. She was going to the hospital quite regularly. And traveling became very dangerous, especially when you're flying from a state like Texas, which is surrounded by states with abortion bans pretty far away to get health care. She would be having to go to somewhere like Kansas for an abortion or maybe Virginia. And that's a very, very long distance. Her aunt did consider ordering abortion pills online for Tiara.

She ultimately decided not to because she was really worried, given all of these medical complications that she was already having. What if taking these pills, especially something that hadn't been given to her by her doctors? What if it made her conditions worse? And I think this really underscores something that I have noticed very often when I talk to women and people who have ordered abortion medication online, is this is a medically safe practice.