Maternal Mortality & Morbidity Review Committee Postpones Texas Maternal Death Report

Texas loses about 29.3 mothers for every 100,000 live births. The state report meant to explain why won’t be published until December 2026.

The Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee (MMMRC) also skipped its full review of 2022 and 2023, the first two full years of pregnancy-related deaths after the Texas abortion ban took effect. Those years remain unanalyzed.

In layman’s terms: The committee is releasing the 2021 Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Report five years late.

The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and the committee’s joint report was scheduled to release September 1. DSHS moved the release to December, saying the review committee was better explaining preventable deaths and drawing clearer connections between the underlying data, findings, and recommendations.

DSHS denies the report is late. Spokesperson Chris Van Deusen points to HB 4666, signed June 20, 2025, which set a December 1 deadline for all Health and Safety Code reports. The bill never mentioned maternal mortality. The December deadline arrived as an amendment and applies to every health agency report.

Health and human services data shouldn’t be political. But the new deadline falls after voters go to the polls, and reporters have noted what that means in practice: policymakers lose months of information, and pregnant women in Texas lose months of help.

State Rep. Donna Howard, an Austin Democrat who chairs the Texas House Women’s Health Caucus, called the delay “disrespectful to the women whose lives are honored through the MMMRC’s work.” The caucus asked DSHS to release policy recommendations by October 1, so policymakers have time to act before the Texas legislature in January.

The committee’s data can be pushed back. The statute of limitations on a Texas maternal death case cannot.

If your family has been affected, a Texas maternal death lawyer from Janicek Law can help seek justice. Call 210-366-4949 for a free consultation.

Have Pregnancy-Related Deaths Increased in Texas?

Yes. Pregnancy-related deaths in Texas rose sharply and have never returned to the pre-pandemic baseline.

Two different counts tell the same story, and it helps to know which is which. The committee’s own case reviews, which count pregnancy-related deaths under a narrower definition, rose from 79 in 2018-2019 to 120 in 2022-2023. The broader WONDER maternal death file from the Centers for Disease Control, which the table on this page uses, shows higher annual totals because it captures every maternal death recorded on a death certificate. Both trend in the same direction.

Texas maternal mortality rose 63% from 2018 to 2020, and the Centers for Disease Control count now sits near 130 a year, well above where the state started.

Even so, pregnant women in Texas are largely without public health data. The state has gone years without a complete analysis from the committee.

The committee chose to review 2024 cases and skip comprehensive reviews of 2022 and 2023. Instead, DSHS epidemiologists published 2022 and 2023 numbers on a public dashboard.

Those two years matter most. They’re the first full years after the abortion ban and the period that drew the most concern in public hearings. The dashboard doesn’t say whether any of those deaths were preventable, and without a committee review, there are no recommendations for preventing the next one.

The report the state skipped is the same one our Texas OB-GYN malpractice lawyers use to determine if a mother’s death was preventable, which is why we’re voicing our concerns.

Texas Maternal Mortality Rate Since Abortion Ban

Maternal mortality for white women in Texas more than doubled between 2019 and 2021. For Hispanic women, the maternal mortality rose from 14.5 to 18.9 per 100,000. For Black women, it rose from 31.6 to 43.6. All three groups eased slightly as pandemic deaths receded, then flattened about 70% above the pre-pandemic baseline.

The table below tracks maternal deaths in Texas and the rate per 100,000 live births over that period.

Maternal death counts came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s CDC WONDER mortality file, with calculations drawn from the Gender Equity Policy Institute for 2022, March of Dimes PeriStats for 2023, and the Texas DSHS maternal health dashboard for 2024.

Texas ranks 33rd among states for maternal health outcomes, and its overall maternal safety trend is officially classified as worsening, according to America’s Health Rankings for 2025.

Texas Maternal Mortality Rose 56%. Nationally, It Rose 11%.

Texas outpaces the national average by every available measure. The maternal mortality rate in Texas is 29.3 deaths per 100,000 live births. The national rate is 23.5 on the same five-year CDC estimate.

Single-year federal data widens the gap. The Centers for Disease Control reported a national rate of 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024, down slightly from 18.6 in 2023. Texas reported 28.2 to 29.3 over the same period.

A gap that size deserves an explanation. Part of it is access: nearly half of Texas counties are maternity care deserts, and every risk that follows compounds from there.

If your family has been affected, contact a Texas birth injury lawyer from our firm.

Leading Causes of Pregnancy-Related Deaths in Texas

Six causes accounted for 78% of all pregnancy-related deaths in Texas in the committee’s most recently reviewed year:

1. Infection
2. Cardiovascular conditions
3. Hemorrhage
4. Blood clots outside the brain
5. Stroke not linked to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy
6. Suicide and untreated mental health conditions

The committee also found that 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in Texas were preventable, including deaths during childbirth and in the postpartum period.

Sepsis From Second-Trimester Pregnancy Loss

Hospitalizations for sepsis after second-trimester pregnancy loss rose from 67 to 99 cases. Some of that increase traces to health care negligence, but the timing of the abortion ban is hard to ignore. Here is the ProPublica data:

• Before the ban: sepsis accounted for 2.9% of all second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations
• After the ban: sepsis accounted for 4.9% of the same hospitalizations

When ProPublica analyzed Texas hospital discharge data, it found sepsis in this group rose from 55% to 69% after the ban took effect.

The standard of care for a second-trimester miscarriage is to empty the uterus, which lowers the risk of infection and sepsis. Some Texas doctors still offer D&Cs. Others say their hospital won’t allow one until they can document a life-threatening complication.

If you’re a mother who suffered from sepsis in a Texas hospital, or if you lost a loved one to maternal death in Texas, contact our attorneys to discuss your case.

Severe Obstetric Hemorrhage

• Before the ban (2018-2019): low, stable rates of ER intervention for early pregnancy complications
• After the ban (2023-2024): more than 300 additional patients lost enough blood to require an emergency transfusion

The Population Reference Bureau tied the Texas abortion ban to a rise in severe complications and pregnancy-related deaths. A separate analysis found that transfusions during ER visits for first-trimester miscarriage rose 54% after abortion became a felony.

The law requires doctors to wait for a fetus to lose cardiac activity before intervening, which shortens the window for stopping the bleeding safely. Rural patients feel this first. A high-risk transfer has to beat the bleeding to the blood bank.

Ectopic Pregnancy

• Before the ban: stable, historically low death rates, because intervention was immediate
• After the ban: national ectopic pregnancy deaths nearly doubled, with the sharpest increases in strict-ban states like Texas

Almost every one of these deaths traces back to hesitation over care that used to be routine. When an emergency department sends a patient home with abdominal pain and never confirms where the pregnancy is located, rupture and hemorrhagic shock can follow within hours.

Pregnancy-Related Deaths from Preeclampsia and Cardiovascular Conditions

Cardiovascular conditions are the leading cause of pregnancy-related death in Texas for both Black and white women, according to the committee. Maternal deaths from cardiovascular conditions numbered 63 before the pandemic and rose to 85 in 2020.

Preeclampsia-associated severe maternal morbidity rose 37% between 2017 and 2020. From 2019 to 2020, the rate held steady among white women and rose among Black and Hispanic women.

These deaths drive a large share of fatalities in otherwise routine deliveries, and they involve the most closely monitored conditions in obstetrics.

If you’re a mother who suffered a cardiovascular condition during pregnancy, childbirth, or postpartum, contact a Texas preeclampsia lawyer.

How Disparities in Race, Education & Age Affect Maternal Health Outcomes in Texas

After the first full year of the state’s abortion ban, overall maternal mortality in Texas rose 56%.

Every figure in the table above compares 2019 with 2022. The pre-ban rates come from an NBC News analysis of pregnancy deaths under SB 8, and the Gender Equity Policy Institute measured the post-ban surge using CDC data. The increase covers women carrying wanted pregnancies to term, not only patients seeking to terminate.

The committee measures the same disparity a different way, which is why its numbers don’t match the table. Its 2024 joint biennial report with DSHS uses the pregnancy-related mortality ratio, a narrower measure built from case-by-case clinical review rather than death certificates. By that measure, Black women in Texas die at 39.0 per 100,000 live births, more than 2.5 times the ratio for white women at 16.1. Mothers age 40 and older face the highest risk of any group at 99.5 per 100,000. The ratios run lower than the rates in the table because they count fewer deaths, not because the disparity is smaller.

Severe maternal morbidity follows the same pattern. The statewide rate reached 85.5 cases per 100,000 hospital deliveries in 2021, but for Black women it climbed to 134.4. Hispanic women recorded 82.2, non-Hispanic white women 72.6, and women of other races 82.6.

Education and income don’t close the gap. Black women face 2.5 times the maternal mortality of white women at every education level and every income bracket, and the committee found that women with a high school education or less remained among the most affected groups.

Who Is Most Affected By The Increased Maternal Mortality Rate in Texas

When you look at where pregnancy-related deaths rose fastest, the crisis splits in two:

1. the deadliest urban county in the country for Black mothers
2. vast stretches of Texas with no care at all for pregnancy, delivery, or postpartum recovery

South Texas and the Border Region

The Rio Grande Valley and surrounding communities are seeing steep increases in complications and pregnancy-related deaths, driven by socioeconomic disparities and shortages of specialized care.

San Antonio:

Bexar County is the receiving hospital system for 22 counties, which makes it the medical catch-all for South Texas. High-risk, unmanaged complications from surrounding communities land here. The South and West Sides show disproportionately high infant and maternal mortality compared with the wealthier North Side. The 2023 closure of Texas Vista Medical Center removed a hospital from the South Side entirely, narrowing options for communities that already had few.

Eagle Pass:

For mothers in Eagle Pass, the nearest care for serious complications is two hours away in San Antonio. For Eagle Pass maternal death cases, the bigger problem is structural: Maverick County relies on federally qualified health centers and on the Department of State Health Services rather than a county health department with its own capacity.

Seguin:

Guadalupe County has grown about 15% in recent years and still has a single designated maternal facility. The bigger issue is that facility’s Level II designation. Any major complication means a transfer to Bexar County, and that gap is what drives the rise in maternal deaths and birth complications in Seguin.

Converse, Live Oak and Universal City:

Maternal deaths and birth injuries in Converse, Live Oak, and Universal City come down to one fact: there is no local obstetric care. Methodist Hospital Northeast holds no maternal designation and doesn’t deliver babies. Any complication can turn into a birth injury or fetal or maternal death in Live Oak. High-risk patients travel I-35 and Loop 1604 to reach care, and many birth injury and maternal death cases in Universal City, Converse, and Live Oak trace back to the minutes lost in traffic during an emergency transfer.

East Texas “Shortage Belt”

Maternal mortality rises across East Texas, from the Louisiana border toward the outer Dallas-Fort Worth region. Public health data shows East Texas frequently outpacing the state average for poor maternal health outcomes.

Bowie, Cass, and Cherokee Counties have lost every labor and delivery option they had. That leaves a multi-county gap in care and pushes the overflow into Tyler and Longview hospitals.

The Panhandle & West Texas Maternity Care Deserts

The Texas Panhandle and West Texas hold some of the largest continuous maternity care deserts in the state.

• Castro, Swisher, Briscoe, and Hall Counties have no OB-GYN, birth center, or hospital labor and delivery unit at all.
• The nearest trauma centers are in Lubbock and Amarillo, hours away. These counties have seen sharp increases in preventable deaths from rapid-onset conditions like preeclampsia-induced seizures and postpartum hemorrhage, which can turn fatal during transport.

Did Negligence Play a Role in Your Family’s Loss? Talk to a Texas Lawyer Today

A delayed state report doesn’t pause civil deadlines. If a mother died or was seriously injured during pregnancy, labor and delivery, or the postpartum period, these facts can signal negligence:

• A healthcare provider ignored reported concerns, like heavy bleeding, fever, severe headache, or confusion
• A patient was discharged while still bleeding or showing signs of infection
• Elevated blood pressure appeared across multiple visits with no change in treatment
• An emergency C-section, transfusion, or hysterectomy followed hours of unexplained waiting
• Records show a shift change, transfer, or on-call delay between the symptoms and the intervention

Janicek Law handles claims for maternal injury and maternal death in Texas. Call 210-366-4949 or contact us online for a free case review.