CV NEWS FEED // Between 2022 and 2023, the U.S. maternal mortality rate declined 16.6%, reaching its lowest point since 2018 — 18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births — according to a February 2025 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The maternal mortality rate is currently on a downward trend after climbing between 2018 and 2021. It dropped sharply between 2021 and 2022 as well, with the rate going from 32.9 fatalities per 100,000 live births in 2021 to 22.3 in 2022, according to the CDC’s 2022 report.
Michael J. New, a business professor at the Catholic University of America and a scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, argued in a piece in the National Review that the data demonstrate that pro-abortion advocates are wrong when they claim that pro-life legislation would only harm women. Maternal mortality declined between 2022 and 2023, the year following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which prompted several states to enact pro-life legislation.
“Countless mainstream media pundits predicted that strong pro-life laws would hurt public health,” New wrote for the National Review. “However, CDC data show a decline in maternal mortality since 2022 and a decline in infant mortality since 2023. Overall, it is sad, but unsurprising, that many media outlets have chosen to downplay the positive public health trends that have occurred post-Dobbs.”
New pointed out that there are two problems with how mainstream media is focusing on how the maternal mortality rate rose in 2023 for black women: The rise for that group (49.5 to 50.3) wasn’t statistically significant and, both overall and for most racial groups, the rate has decreased.
He later added that the high maternal mortality rate among black women “is certainly an important public health problem that warrants attention from scholars, journalists, and policymakers.”
The CDC did not respond to CatholicVote’s request for comment on the implications of the data by the time of publication.