INSTITUTE INDEX: Addressing the South's maternal mortality crisis
This map, based on CDC data, shows maternal mortality rates by state in 2018. (Map from the United Health Foundation's America's Health Rankings website.)
Number of women who die each year in the United States from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth: 700 to 900
Additional number who experience dangerous, life-threatening complications: more than 50,000
Rank of the United States' maternal mortality rate among 39 other wealthy industrialized nations: 39th
Percent that the maternal mortality rate in the United States increased between 1990 and 2013, more than any other country: 136
Factor by which black women in the United States are more likely to die due to pregnancy or childbirth-related causes than white women, a gap that persists even after controlling for socioeconomic status and education: 2.4
Percent of women who died from pregnancy-related causes in Mississippi between 2013 and 2016 who were black: 80
Rank of Georgia among the states with the highest maternal mortality rate: 1
Maternal mortality rate in Georgia last year: 46.2
Percentage points by which Georgia's rate exceeds the U.S. average: 25.5
Factor by which it exceeds California's rate, the nation's lowest: 10
Percent that the U.S. maternal mortality rate fell in the year following the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, which is now under assault in many Southern states including Georgia and Mississippi: 50
Percent of all maternal deaths in the U.S. that are preventable, according to the CDC Foundation: 60
Month in which U.S. Reps. Alma Adams and Lauren Underwood, Democrats representing North Carolina and Illinois respectively, launched the Black Maternal Health Caucus: 4/2019
Besides establishing a nationwide grant program for bias training in medical schools, number of states where Adams' bill would support demonstration projects based on a successful Medicaid program in North Carolina, a Southern state with maternal mortality rates near the national average and one of only a few states that's experienced a decline in the rate for black women: 10
Number of co-sponsors on Adams' bill to date: 11
Number of those co-sponsors who represent Southern states: 4
(Click on figure to go to source.)
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Sarah Moore
Sarah Moore is an intern with the Institute for Southern Studies. She is pursuing bachelor's degrees in political science and gender and women's history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.