Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett wrote to Governor Greg Abbott and Texas health commissioner Imelda Garcia on September 25, 2026, over the delay of the state’s maternal mortality report.
The report was due September 1. It has been pushed to December, which puts it after the November 3 election. Early voting starts October 19.
“The Abbott administration has failed Texas mothers,” Crockett wrote, accusing the state of “concealing the official data that demonstrates your failures until after the election.”
The Texas Department of State Health Services said the report is in regular internal review, and that the commissioner asked the committee to strengthen its analysis of which deaths were preventable.
Here is what is already on the record. At a December 2025 committee meeting, the state identified 277 pregnancy-associated deaths in 2021, and 180 cases from the first three quarters of 2024.
Those reports are how we argue. When Black mothers say we are dying at rates that do not match our share of the population, the maternal mortality review is the document that proves it and tells lawmakers where the gaps are. Without it, the conversation runs on memory instead of evidence.
Crockett represents Texas’ 30th congressional district, which covers much of Dallas. She has no authority over a state report, so the letter is pressure, not process.
Early voting opens October 19. The report is now scheduled for December.
