The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any high-income country, and Texas ranks poorly within the U.S., per CDC data and a cross-country analysis by The Commonwealth Fund.
A detailed state report scheduled to release on Sept. 1 was supposed to help answer that. It would have included the first state analysis of a full year of pregnancy death data since the near-total abortion ban took effect in 2022. But the report didn’t publish on the usual timeline. And time is precious, argues Texas State Rep. Ann Johnson, because the report is “essential” for lawmakers to write life-saving laws in the upcoming legislative session.
“Any further delay is not merely bureaucratic; it is an unconscionable dereliction of duty to Texas mothers and families,” Johnson said in a press release about the delay.
The state denies that there is a delay. Chris Van Deusen, spokesperson for the Department of State Health Services, told the Chronicle in an email that last session, the legislature moved the report’s deadline from September to December.
The state will make use of that time, Van Deusen explained, because the acting commissioner “has asked the committee to strengthen the report.” Revisions focus on the preventability of deaths and “making clearer connections between the underlying data, findings, and recommendations.”
The upcoming report will presumably include cases that made headlines – like the 2024 death of Tierra Walker, who wanted her pregnancy but requested an abortion when she feared for her life. ProPublica found that over 90 doctors were involved in her care, none of whom offered an abortion.
Walker is among several documented cases of women who died after Texas enacted a law that threatens doctors with up to 99 years in prison for offering abortions. To avoid prison time, doctors in Texas must show their patient’s life or bodily function depended on an abortion. A 2025 amendment gave doctors more leeway to intervene before a medical threat becomes imminent. But critics say the threat of prison time still prevents doctors from making the best decisions for patients.
That 2025 change – and abortion laws in general – are among the issues voters will weigh this November. And a September report would have given voters information about maternal deaths before they cast their ballots in the midterm.
Pro life, for all of god’s children.