Maternal Health: Funding Cuts Amid an Ongoing Crisis
The United States continues to grapple with a maternal health crisis characterized by significant racial and ethnic disparities in morbidity and mortality. Maternal mortality rates here are at least double (and sometimes triple) those of most other high-income countries, according to a 2024 Commonwealth Fund report. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 80% of U.S. maternal deaths are preventable.
Recent data show some improvement in mortality and morbidity but persistent disparities in who is at greatest risk. Pregnancy-related deaths in 2023 decreased to 18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births from a rate of 22.3 the year before, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Yet the maternal mortality rate for Black women and American Indian and Alaska Native women continues to be more than three times that of White women.
Federal changes threaten efforts to improve care and disparities
As nurses and other maternal health providers work to address the complex underlying causes of these disparities, their efforts have been challenged in recent months by rapid and unprecedented federal funding and infrastructure cuts. The Trump administration has suspended Title X family planning and preventive health services funding, initiated widespread layoffs of federal health […]