Racial Outcomes in Maternal Mortality in Texas

In June 2024, the Texas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights adopted a proposal to study the civil rights implications of racial disparities in maternal mortality in Texas. The Committee found that robust data collection is essential to addressing racial disparities and evaluating the impact of policy changes on maternal health. And there are some achievable policy solutions that would decrease maternal mortality, including promising developments in technology, paid family leave, and investing in more birth workers. Based on the Committee’s findings, we provide several recommendations that Congress and the state of Texas should take, which the Committee believes would address many of the current shortcomings and greatly decrease Texas’s maternal mortality rate.