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Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025

Do the 10 U.S. states with the highest maternal mortality rates have abortion bans?

Carmela Guaglianone, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
no

Though nine of the 10 states with the highest maternal mortality rates—Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee—have total or near-total abortion bans in place, one does not. Virginia allows abortions until the third trimester. 

Maternal mortality rankings rely on U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2018-2022, the most recent available. The CDC defines maternal deaths as those occurring during or within 42 days of pregnancy from causes related to or exacerbated by pregnancy. It uses the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births to determine maternal mortality rates. 

Arizona had the 11th highest maternal mortality rate among the states analyzed, with 30 maternal deaths per 100,000 births. Rates were not calculated for 11 states that had insufficient data. 

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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.

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