Coincidence? Texas Slashed Women’s Health and Maternal Death Rate Soared
(COMMON DREAMS) Deirdre Fulton, August 19, 2016 — Texas showed the sharpest increase of maternal deaths of all U.S. states between 2000 and 2014, with that rate doubling in the two-year period after the state slashed funding for Planned Parenthood and women’s health programs, according to a study to be published next month.
Many of the family planning clinics that lost funding or closed were an “entry point into the health care system” for women—leading to a ripple effect of difficulty obtaining care.
The analysis (pdf), forthcoming in the September issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, found that after a “modest increase” in maternal mortality in Texas between 2000 and 2010, the rate of pregnancy-related deaths nearly doubled in 2011 and 2012—a trend the researchers found “puzzling.” They point to everything from revisions to Texas’ death certificate to data processing and coding changes to the closing of several women’s health clinics as possible reasons for the jump.