Task Force on Maternal Deaths in Texas Awaits Governor
NEW YORK (WOMENSENEWS)— Mothers dying in childbirth or from other pregnancy-related causes should be studied by a task force, according to legislators who sent the bill on May 26 to GOP Gov. Rick Perry’s office.
“Texas moms have been dying from pregnancy-related causes at a rate far higher than the rest of the country and we have no idea why,” said Rep. Armando Walle (D-Houston), who sponsored the bill. “I am proud that my colleagues in the Legislature recognized the urgency of ensuring our mothers are healthy.”
Texas has a higher rate mortality that the national average rate of 21 per 100,000 live birth, Women’s eNews Editor-in-Chief Rita Henley Jensen wrote in a piece published earlier this year.
The maternal mortality rate for Texas has quadrupled over the last 15 years to 24.6 for every 100,000 live births in 2010, from 6.1 per 100,000 live births in 1996, according to a report last year from the state’s Department of Health Services.
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