Rep. Chu Responds to Tragic, Preventable Death of Texas Mother Denied Care Under Extreme Abortion Ban

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, ProPublica published a devastating investigation revealing how Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old mother from San Antonio, died after being repeatedly denied medical care under Texas’s extreme abortion ban. 

In response, Rep. Judy Chu (CA-28), author of the Women’s Health Protection Act, issued the following statement:

“This is horrifying. Tierra Walker should be alive today, but Texas’s extremist abortion ban made it illegal for doctors to give her the standard medical care she needed to survive. There was nothing uncertain about her condition. Her death was preventable, and it was caused by a law written by Republicans to control women’s bodies, no matter the consequences. This is the disgraceful reality of Republican abortion bans that criminalize care and sacrifice women’s lives.

“Tierra asked her doctors, over and over again, whether she could end a pregnancy that was pushing her toward organ failure. More than 90 physicians saw her. Not one felt safe offering her the standard-of-care option because Texas law threatens doctors with jail time for doing what is medically necessary. Tierra now leaves behind her fourteen-year-old son. 

“How many more women have to needlessly suffer? How many more have to die? How many more children have to grow up without their mother? How many more parents have to lose their adult daughters before Republicans in Congress finally do what’s right and protect women’s basic freedom to survive their own pregnancies?

“This doesn’t have to be our reality. My bill, the Women’s Health Protection Act, would restore the right to abortion care nationwide and ensure that patients and providers can make lifesaving medical decisions without fear of prosecution. It would take only six Republicans in the House to join with us and pass this vital legislation to restore bodily autonomy to every person in this country, regardless of their state or zip code.”