Pregnancy Mortality Rates Have Doubled in Texas

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SaludTodayTwiiter6.2A new study shows an inexplicable doubling in the number of women dying from pregnancy complications in Texas, the San Antonio Current reports.

Authors of the study, soon to be published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, indicated the trend seems isolated to the Lone Star State.

They don’t speculate on reasons behind the trend, but highlight the possible linkage between the increase in maternal mortality rates and the Texas Legislature’s decrease in funding to family planning agencies in 2011.

Vital statistics personnel in Texas and at the National Center for Health Statistics couldn’t determine that there was a correlation between the two incidences.

“There were some changes in the provision of women’s health services in Texas from 2011 to 2015, including the closing of several women’s health clinics,” the study said, according to the San Antonio Current. “Still, in the absence of war, natural disaster, or severe economic upheaval, the doubling of a mortality rate within a 2-year period in a state with almost 400,000 annual births seems unlikely.”

This issue is important to Latinos because this population, who comprise over 35% of the state’s population, contributes to Texas having a younger population than the American average. Latino births have outnumbered non-Latino white births since the early 1990s.

In 2013, the state created a task force to study pregnancy-related deaths and on September 1, 2016 the group will submit a report on its findings and recommendations to the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the House of Representatives and appropriate committees.

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