On Thursday morning CNN published a story citing a large increase in the infant-mortality rate in Texas. Data obtained from the Texas Department of State Health Services via a public-records request showed that in 2022 the number of infant deaths in Texas purportedly increased by 11.5 percent. A number of other news outlets, including Axios, Straight Arrow News, and Truthout, were quick to cover this increase in infant deaths in the Lone Star State.
Unsurprisingly, the CNN reporter was quick to blame the Texas Heartbeat Act, which took effect in September 2021. She made no effort even to discuss other possible reasons for the increase. Alternative causes include increased levels of illegal immigration and disruptions to prenatal care caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. She discusses only the Texas Heartbeat Act.
Additionally, the reporter engages in some statistical sleight of hand. While infant deaths increased in Texas in 2022, so did births. Both my Charlotte Lozier Institute study from November 2002 and a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association have found that the Texas Heartbeat Act resulted in an increase in the birth rate in Texas in 2022. Given that, it would be more appropriate to analyze the infant-mortality rate as opposed to infant deaths. My calculations indicate that the infant-mortality rate in Texas increased by 6.6 percent in 2022. While that may be a cause for concern, it is not as dramatic an increase as CNN is reporting.
Furthermore, it should also be noted that the infant mortality rate in Texas in 2022 was well within recent historical norms. In fact, the Texas infant-mortality rate was actually lower in 2022 than in any year from 2007 to 2017. That of course receives no mention in the CNN article.
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Finally, there is a plausible reason why the Texas infant-mortality rate might have increased in 2022. The leading cause of infant mortality in Texas is congenital conditions. The Texas Heartbeat Act is not causing an increase in congenital conditions but rather preventing unborn children from being aborted due to their medical condition. Many such children were tragically dying before the Texas Heartbeat Act. However, since they were aborted, they were not counted as infant deaths.
During the past 15 years Texas has been a leader in enacting strong pro-life policies. It is no surprise that mainstream media have worked overtime to try to find evidence of a public-health crisis in the Lone Star State. So far they have not found much. After the state removed Planned Parenthood from the state family-planning program, the birth rate and abortion rate for minors continued to fall. Reports of a sharp increase in maternal mortality from a 2016 study turned to be greatly exaggerated. This CNN article is just the mainstream media’s latest attempt to claim that pro-life laws lead to poor public-health outcomes.
LifeNews Note: Michael J. New is an assistant professor at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America and is an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_J_New
