Greg Abbott Abortion Healthcare Texas

Greg Abbott's Health Department Pushed Texas's First Maternal Death Report Since the Abortion Ban Past Election Day

Texas's report on women who die during and after pregnancy usually comes out by early September. This year, the first one with data from after Texas banned abortion, the state health department Greg Abbott runs says it's aiming for Dec. 1, a month after Abbott faces voters. His office says 'there is no delay.' It did the same thing in 2022.

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Since Texas banned abortion, women in the state have died after being denied care for pregnancy complications. ProPublica has identified at least four of them in the year after the ban took effect. What Texas has never had is the state's own count — an official report on how many women are dying during and after pregnancy since the ban.

That report is finally coming. It just won't come before Texans vote.

The Washington Sun reports that state officials have pushed the release of Texas's maternal mortality report to "the start of December." Election Day is November 3. Greg Abbott, who signed the abortion ban and runs the agency writing the report, is on that ballot seeking a fourth term.

The report used to come out in September

Texas publishes this report every two years. It looks at the deaths of women during pregnancy and in the months after, and asks which ones could have been prevented.

According to the Sun, the report has typically come out no later than the start of September. As recently as March, the state committee that works on it said at a public meeting that it was working to meet that deadline. This one matters more than any before it: it will be the first to contain data from after Roe v. Wade fell in 2022.

September came and went. Now the Department of State Health Services says the report is in "internal review," and that its acting commissioner sent it back to the committee asking for more work on which deaths were preventable and how the findings connect to the data. The new target is December 1.

As governor, Greg Abbott has executive power over that department, appoints its leadership and can direct how it does its work, the Sun notes.

'There is no delay'

Abbott's press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, told the Sun: "There is no delay." He pointed to a 2025 state law, HB 4666, that moved the deadline for some health reports to December 1.

But the author of that law disagrees about what it's being used for. Democratic state Rep. Christian Manuel, who wrote the bill, told the Texas Observer the extended deadline has been "weaponized to withhold information" from the public, the Sun reports. A law that allows a December release doesn't require one, and the committee itself was planning for September as late as this spring.

Alina Salganicoff, who directs women's health policy at the health research group KFF, told the Sun it is "unclear" why the report needs extra time, and noted that other states routinely do this kind of analysis.

They did this in 2022, too

This isn't the first time. According to the Sun, Texas also held the 2022 maternal mortality report until after that year's Election Day. When it came out, it showed an increase in deaths of pregnant Black women.

And the state has been reluctant to look closely at the post-ban years at all. In early 2025, ProPublica reported that the review committee had decided to skip 2022 and 2023 deaths entirely and resume with 2024 — the same two years when the ban first hit. The committee's chair said the decision had "absolutely no nefarious intent." The same report noted that by law the committee can't review cases involving an abortion medication or procedure.

What the report could show

Independent reporting has already filled in some of what the state hasn't said:

ProPublica found that after Texas banned abortion, the rate of sepsis — a life-threatening infection — "shot up more than 50% for women hospitalized when they lost their pregnancies in the second trimester."
Nationally, deaths from ectopic pregnancies rose after Dobbs. We covered ProPublica's finding that the states with six-week-or-earlier bans now have nearly double the ectopic pregnancy death rate of states that never passed a ban.

Abbott owns the policy behind those numbers. In 2021 he signed Senate Bill 8, which banned abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy — leaving victims of sexual assault, NBC News noted, no more than four weeks to get one.

Donna Howard, the Democrat who chairs the Texas Women's Health Caucus, told the Sun why the timing matters: if the data shows more women "having complications, not getting the care that they need and even dying, that could get the attention of Republican women." Abbott's opponent, Gina Hinojosa, said Abbott delayed the report because he "knows the results will be damning." Abbott's office and the health department deny holding it back.

The facts, in short

Texas's maternal mortality report usually comes out by early September, and the committee writing it said in March it was working toward that date. This year's report is the first with data from after the state's abortion ban, and the health department that answers to Greg Abbott now says it is aiming for December 1, four weeks after Abbott is on the ballot. Texas also held its 2022 report until after that year's election.