The State of the States

Where a woman lives in the United States should not determine whether she survives pregnancy, childbirth, or the postpartum period. But it does.

Maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity vary dramatically from state to state, shaped by differences in healthcare access, rural hospital closures, insurance coverage, poverty, racial disparities, public health funding, and the willingness of systems to take women seriously before it is too late.

Some states are doing better than others. None are doing well enough.

Behind every number is a woman with a name, a family, a future, and a story that should not have ended this way.

Click a state below to remember the women we have documented there and to better understand the uneven reality of maternal health in America.