1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

Release the Maternal Mortality Report Now Release the MMRC's maternal mortality report immediately and stop hiding data that could save women's lives. The report was due September 1. Pushing it to December 1 — conveniently past the midterm elections — is a transparent political maneuver, and the justification doesn't hold up. The bill being cited as cover, HB 4666, was never intended to delay this report. Its own author, Representative Christian Manuel, has said his legislation is being "misused and weaponized to withhold information from the public." Texas already had the highest maternal death rate since the MMRC began tracking these cases in 2014, and that was before the abortion bans took effect. The upcoming report covers 2022 and 2023 — the exact years following the Dobbs ruling and the state's near-total abortion ban — and Texans deserve to know what happened. Lawmakers are filing bills right now, and without the MMRC's recommendations, critical legislation to address this crisis gets pushed back another two years. Release the report. Then act on what it says. Women in Texas are dying, and every month of delay is a choice to let that continue.