According to a new study from the Gender Equity Policy Institute, the number of women who have died while pregnant or from labor complications has risen dramatically in Texas, apparently exacerbated by the state’s abortion restrictions passed in 2021.
The study’s findings were published by NBC News, where Zinhle Essamuah was one of the reporters on the story. She joined the Texas Standard to share more.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Let’s first talk about these numbers and understand what actually happened. These numbers come from data gathered between 2019 and 2022. So we’re talking about a pretty critical period during which COVID caused the numbers to spike nationwide. Is that right?
Zinhle Essamuah: Yes. We’re talking about maternal mortality rate, which is the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births each year. So this data was exclusive to NBC News from the Gender Equity Policy Institute, and their numbers were pulled for the Centers for Disease Control.
And what it found was a 56% rise in maternal mortality in the state of Texas from the year 2019 to 2022. That’s notable because it’s compared to just an 11% rise in maternal mortality nationwide in the same time period. And the time period is important because 2019 is our last glimpse of life before the pandemic. We know that the entire country saw a maternal mortality spike during the pandemic.
But the thing that was really different here: Texas stood out in that it had SB 8. And we know SB 8 passed an entire year before Dobbs. That was the biggest difference between Texas and the other states that did not see such a major rise in maternal mortality.
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It’s well known Black women face higher rates of maternal mortality. Was the increase over that period in Texas different across races, or were all races affected similarly?
This is such an important question. I cover poverty, health care and maternal mortality for NBC News. And we know across the country, Black women are 3 to 4 times more likely to die in childbirth in the country. That’s what the data looks like.
But when we looked at this data from the Gender Equity Policy Institute, it was striking that of that 56% rise in the state of Texas, there was a 38% rise among Black women in the state. There was a 30% rise in maternal deaths among Hispanic women in Texas. Regarding Asian-American women, the numbers were too small and were not included. But what was so striking was a 95% rise among white women in Texas.
And that’s notable because it’s communities of color – Black women, Native women – who have these horrible outcomes with maternal deaths. But the fact that we’re seeing it with white women in Texas is alarming because it could signal rates that are to come in other communities. And so that’s what’s really staggering about this report.
I understand you also spoke with a mother who almost became a statistic. What hurdles did doctors run into in her case?
Yes, childbirth is hard enough as it is. Kaitlyn Kash is a 37-year-old mother from Austin, Texas. She has always been excited about having kids. And her first birth was textbook. But, her second was the opposite. She gave birth to a healthy child, but her placenta was not delivering; any mom knows that’s a standard part of pregnancy. So she needed a D&C to remove that placenta tissue.
But she says doctors delayed and she ultimately waited more than an hour. In this context, time really matters because she was bleeding and ultimately lost consciousness and later needed a blood transfusion. It was supposed to be a standard procedure, but it’s worth noting D&C’s are also often part of an abortion.
In this case, she was not getting an abortion. She had just given birth. This should have been routine. The doctor told her she might need a D&C. When she ultimately asked the hospital what happened, a social worker told her, “we don’t do D&C’s anymore.”
Now, it’s important to note here the overarching sentiment, she says, was hesitancy. She and others fear this hesitancy is becoming systemic among doctors and providers. They’re not sure if or what they should be doing regarding these abortion laws. And as such, they say mothers’ lives are increasingly at risk.
