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Texas committee won't review maternal mortality cases of first two years after abortion ban

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Texas has one of the worst rates of deaths related to pregnancy in the nation.

The Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee is a state-run initiative tasked with investigating and addressing cases of maternal deaths and severe maternal complications (morbidity) in the state.

Its primary purpose is to improve the health and safety of mothers during and after pregnancy by getting answers about what’s going wrong in Texas.

It reviews cases of pregnancies that result in the death of the mother—which happens at an alarming rate in Texas. The committee is supposed to find out contributing factors and recommend policy changes to improve outcomes.

But recently the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee announced it will not review cases from 2022 and 2023.

These also happen to be the first two years after Texas’s near-total abortion ban took effect. Skipping over these two years will make it difficult to establish that the abortion ban is making childbirth more dangerous in Texas. It will also make it more difficult to understand why childbirth is so deadly in Texas.

Guest:

Texas State Representative Donna Howard is a Democrat and the chair of the Texas Women’s Health Caucus.

 "The Source" is a live call-in program airing Mondays through Thursdays from 12-1 p.m. Leave a message before the program at (210) 615-8982. During the live show, call 833-877-8255, email thesource@tpr.org.

*This interview was recorded on Monday, December 2, 2024.

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David Martin Davies can be reached at dmdavies@tpr.org and on Twitter at @DavidMartinDavi