Group eyes state’s delay in maternal death study

A group of the country’s leading maternal health doctors is threatening legal action against the Texas Department of Health and Human Services over its delayed release of a long-awaited report on pregnancy-related deaths.

The report, which will include the state’s first updated count of maternal deaths in nearly a decade and further explore the causes of higher mortality rates among Black mothers, was due under statute by Sept. 1. Health officials have said they need until next summer to finish their analysis, pushing the release past next week’s heated midterm elections and the approaching state legislative session.

In a letter submitted late Tuesday, lawyers for the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine demanded that the health agency publish its findings by next

Thursday, saying it holds critical information for its 5,500 members, including nearly 450 physicians in Texas. It noted that the agency has routinely published reports with preliminary findings that are later updated, as it did with the last maternal mortality report, in 2020. That report, however, relied on data from 2013.

“Should you continue to withhold the Joint Report in violation of Texas law, SMFM will consider all available options, including seeking legal remedies, to compel publication,” wrote lawyers with the Democracy Forward Foundation, which is representing the physicians group. The letter was also addressed to the state’s Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee, which reviews and provides recommendations on improving pregnancy-related health outcomes.

Skye Perryman, a lawyer who heads Democracy Forward, called it “incredibly concerning” that the agency has delayed the report, even amid the pleas in recent weeks from health advocates and Democratic lawmakers to publish it.

“There is no discretion in the law, there is no out where the state has the ability to not comply with the law,” Perryman said. “So we continue to be very concerned about what we’re seeing here and a broader pattern and concerns about women’s and maternal health in Texas.”

The physicians group supports abortion access and has been critical of the ban on abortions that Texas and other states have imposed this year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Maternal-fetal medicine specialists are obstetricians with additional training and are especially adept at complex pregnancies and pregnancy complications.

Kerri Wade, chief public affairs officer for the society, said maternal mortality reviews are “critical” to “understanding why each maternal death happened and how to prevent future deaths.”

“The United States has the highest rate of maternal death among developed nations, with significant racial disparities and large differences in rates between states,” she said in a statement. “Pregnancy experts, like members of SMFM, rely on the information and recommendations contained in the reports of these committees to advance equitable care for pregnant and postpartum people.”

A spokesman for the health agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In September, thenCommissioner John Hellerstedt of the Department of State Health Services expressed concerns about releasing portions of the study before it is complete.

“The information we provide is not easily understood, and not easily and readily comparable to what goes on in other states,” Hellerstedt said. “And the fact it isn’t easily understood or easily comparable in my mind leaves room for a great deal of misunderstanding about what the data really means.”

Last week, however, Democratic Rep. Donna Howard of Austin said Hellerstedt, who is now retired, urged others privately to continue pushing for the report’s release.

Howard and others have formally requested the report in letters to the health agency in recent weeks.

State Rep. Shawn Thierry, D-Houston, was the first to request the data, in mid-September. Howard asked for the report by Oct. 20 “in order to give caucus members ample time to create relevant legislation.” More than 50 other lawmakers signed onto Howard’s request.

Howard has since obtained some maternal health data as part of a separate agency report, set to be published in December, that shows that the rate of life-threatening hemorrhaging among Black women during childbirth in Texas increased through 2020, while it fell for all other demographic groups. The agency has declined to or not yet produced the bulk of the remaining requests.

Recently, in response to Thierry’s letter, interim health department Commissioner Jennifer Shuford said she intends to provide lawmakers with “data and recommendations” but has not specified whether that includes the analysis of the 2019 deaths, the year that is being reviewed in the report that was due Sept. 1.