Texas’ Pregnancy Death Report Set to Release After Midterms

Texas is statistically among the most deadly places for pregnant women in the wealthy world.

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.

What happens when you take a state with a high rate of pregnancy-related deaths and make abortion illegal in almost every case?

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.

After maternal deaths spiked in Texas in the early 2010s, lawmakers decided something should be done. They did not expand Medicaid, and Texas continues to hold the highest uninsured rate in the country. But in 2013, Texas lawmakers did start a committee.

That committee – mostly doctors – has the duty of analyzing almost every pregnancy death in the state. They look for patterns and suggest ways to prevent future mothers’ deaths. Every two years, the state draws on those findings and is legally required to publish a report on pregnant women’s deaths.

The last maternal mortality report found about eight in 10 pregnancy-related deaths analyzed were preventable. The report’s recommendations require political changes, like expanding Medicaid access and increasing paid sick leave.

For the second midterm year running, Texas’ report on pregnancy deaths will reach lawmakers and voters only after they’ve cast their ballots, though the circumstances differ.

The state health department delayed publication in 2022 for further review, pushing the publication date until after the election that pitted Gov. Greg Abbott against progressive candidate Beto O’Rourke. 

At the time, then-State Rep. Jasmine Crockett (now a member of Congress) suggested the report might have swayed voters against Abbott.

“So Dems argue that the abortion ban will kill more women in Texas,” Crockett posted on X. “And what does Texas do? Somehow miss the count of maternal deaths because facts may hurt them in the midterm.” 

The department denied any political motivation in 2022. This week, the Chronicle asked whether the new delay was influenced by the upcoming election. Van Deusen did not answer that question. Van Deusen also did not say whether the department had considered publishing a first report by September and an updated version in December.

The Texas Women’s Health Caucus didn’t call the later publication date political. But, in its press release, State Rep. Rhetta Bowers called it “disgraceful.” State Rep. Donna Howard said the delay is “disrespectful,” and State Rep. Jessica González deemed it “outrageous.”

If the trends from 2022 and this year continue, that delayed timing could become the norm, leaving Texans without the crucial information before heading to the polls.

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