A national group of maternal health physicians is threatening legal action against the Texas Department of State Health if officials do not release a state report about pregnancy-related deaths.
In a Nov. 2 letter to the department, lawyers for the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine requested that the report and recommendations from Texas' maternal mortality and morbidity review committee be released by Nov. 10. State law required Texas to release the report Sept. 1.
"SMFM will consider all available options, including seeking legal remedies to compel its release," Democracy Forward, a nonprofit and nonpartisan legal services organization representing the medical association, wrote in the letter.
Lawyers said the report includes valuable information on state maternal death trends that the association's 5,500 members, including 442 in Texas, rely on to address racial inequities in maternal health outcomes.
The Texas health department is slated to discuss the report in a Dec. 8 meeting and said it intends "to provide data and recommendations timely to help inform efforts during the 88th Legislative Session," according to a Nov. 3 news release from Democracy Forward.
Editor's note: Becker's reached out to the Texas Department of State Health for comment and will update the article as more information becomes available.