Texas won’t release first maternal death report since overturning of Roe v. Wade until after midterms – Houston Public Media

Texas won’t release first maternal death report since overturning of Roe v. Wade until after midterms  Houston Public Media

The report, which has traditionally been released every other year on or near Sept. 1 will now not be released until Dec. 1. The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) announced last week that it would not release its biannual maternal mortality report until December, pushing the release date to after the November election. The report, which had traditionally been released every other year on or near Sept. 1, was expected to contain the first full year of data on maternal mortality in the state since its near-total abortion ban went into effect. Texas officially banned nearly all abortions in August 2022, just two months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v.

Wade. One year prior, in 2021, the state had passed the Texas Heartbeat Act, which banned any abortions at six weeks. Researchers, such as Faith Fletcher, a public health and bioethics expert, said the report provides essential data. "We need the data so that we can understand why women are dying [and] what are some solutions that we can propose," Fletcher told Houston Public Media. Fletcher, along with Kari White — a nonresident fellow in maternal and reproductive health at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy — authored an opinion in the Houston Chronicle last week criticizing DSHS's decision to push back the release date.