Health officials say they need more time to complete a report on maternal deaths - likely punting the fullest accounting of pregnancy-related deaths since the state's abortion ban took effect until after the midterms.
The biennial report has historically been released on Sept. 1, but lawmakers were informed last week that it would not be completed by then. The Department of State Health Services said the report will be finished by Dec. 1 under a new deadline the state Legislature approved last year.
Advocates and Democrats say that will give lawmakers little time to craft bills for the next legislative session, which starts in January - and it will likely keep voters in the dark ahead of the high-stakes midterms.
BACKGROUND: Texas won't investigate maternal mortalities for the years immediately following its abortion ban
The Texas House Women's Health Caucus wrote to acting health commissioner Imelda Garcia on Wednesday urging her to release the findings sooner.
"The Department knows that releasing this report by September 1 is essential to the Legislature's ability to act," state Rep. Ann Johnson, a Houston Democrat, said in a statement. "Any further delay is not merely bureaucratic; it is an unconscionable dereliction of duty to Texas mothers and families."
Democrats say the timing is suspicious, given the Dec. 1 deadline is after Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans who supported the state's abortion ban are up for reelection.
It is only the second time the report has not been released by Sept. 1. The last time was in 2022, when Abbott was last on the ballot. The governor appoints the state health commission members.
That report, which only included data through 2020, showed a higher rate of life-threatening hemorrhaging among Black women during childbirth. This year's report would look at 2024, the first full-year look since the state's abortion ban took place in 2022. Advocates have expected maternal deaths to increase as more women carry pregnancies to term.
"It's rather suspect it's occurring at this point in time in the election time," said state Rep. Donna Howard, an Austin Democrat. "In 2022, the report was delayed at the time that Abbott was at the top of the ticket. Now it's being delayed again with Abbott in a competitive race."
A spokesman for Abbott said in a statement there "is no delay," adding that Howard voted for the bill that pushed the deadline to Dec. 1.
A spokesman for the state health agency also said the report is on schedule. Last year's legislation, House Bill 4666, set a Dec. 1 deadline for all reports the agency is tasked with compiling - effectively overriding the longstanding Sept. 1 deadline.
That bill, authored by Democratic state Rep. Christian Manuel, did not specifically mention maternal mortality. The December deadline was added as an amendment on the House floor, and applies to all health agency reports. Manuel did not respond to requests for comment on whether he intended to move the maternal mortality report's due date. State Rep. James Frank, a Wichita Falls Republican, wrote the amendment, which was adopted unanimously.
"The committee is going to make some revisions to the draft report, so it will be out closer to the new Dec. 1 due date," DSHS spokesman Chris Van Deusen said.
Van Deusen said Garcia, the acting health commissioner, asked the state's maternal mortality committee to "strengthen the report by further describing its work around preventability, better defining the sources of its recommendations, and making clearer connections between the underlying data, findings, and recommendations."
"These revisions are not about the data or the completeness of the reviews, they are about presenting findings, recommendations, and other information about the committee's work in a more complete way that will better inform policy decisions," he said.
The women's health caucus letter says the delay is "particularly disturbing" because lawmakers last session voted to eliminate redaction requirements that the committee had said previously slowed its work.
Minutes from the committee's December meeting show it was on track to complete the report by Sept. 1. The minutes say the committee was set to finish reviewing 2024 cases by this May.
Nakeenya Wilson, a former member of the committee, said there is no obvious reason the committee would need more time. In the past, reports have been amended after publication to meet the Sept. 1 deadline.
"I don't need to speculate about motive to know that Texans deserve an answer," Wilson said. "DSHS told us in December that this report would be published by Sept. 1. They laid out a work plan that had case review ending in May and recommendations being completed in June. So what changed? What work remains? And why should Texans have to wait until after they elect a governor to see findings about preventable maternal deaths?"
There's more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.
This article originally published at Texas' first study of maternal deaths since banning abortion won't be ready by the midterms.