Family blames Texas' "merciless" abortion ban for woman's death, files lawsuit targeting Paxton, doctors - CBS News

The lawsuit names Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and several of Walker's doctors as defendants. Her family's lawyers accuse them of "deliberate indifference, discrimination, and medical mistreatment" that led to her death. Preeclampsia is a severe high blood pressure condition in pregnancy that can turn fatal fast, and the family says that's exactly what happened to Walker.

For people in Lubbock and across West Texas, this case lands close to home even though it was filed two hundred miles away in San Antonio. That law applies everywhere in Texas, including UMC and the smaller clinics scattered across the South Plains. Pregnant women anywhere in the state facing a medical emergency like preeclampsia are subject to the same rules that Walker's family says failed her.

The lawsuit puts Paxton and a major Texas medical institution on the defensive over how the state's abortion ban gets applied in real emergencies, not hypothetical ones. Doctors across Texas have said for years that the law leaves them guessing about when they're legally allowed to act. Walker was 20 weeks along when she died. Her family wants a courtroom to decide who is responsible.