Were Critics Of Texas’ High Maternal Mortality Rate Lying?

Our weekly check-in with the Texas Truth-O-Meter.

By Alexandra HartJune 19, 2019 12:20 pm,

In a tweet last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott claimed critics of Texas’ high maternal mortality rate were “lying.”

“Turns out the critics of the Texas maternal mortality rate were just lying,” Abbott said. “It’s less than half of what the critics said. It’s about 1/10 of 1%. Still, Texas has done more than ever to reduce that rate even more. Facts matter.”

Is that a fact? Madlin Mekelburg of the PolitiFact Texas fact-checking team based at the Austin American-Statesman has the answer.

Mekelburg says state data used for a previous study on maternal mortality rates did contain errors, but Abbott’s claim that critics lied is a stretch.

“The errors were largely human error in filling out electronic death certificates, which were a relatively new thing introduced during the time of this study,” Mekelburg says.

Hear how Abbott’s claim scored in the player above.

 

Written by Chloe Bennett.