Here’s one issue blue and red states agree on: Preventing deaths of expectant and new mothers

Pennsylvania, which ranks sixth in the number of births in the U.S., is currently the largest state without a maternal mortality review committee, but lawmakers are advancing a measure to change that. It passed the House in December and recently cleared a Senate committee; it’s now headed for consideration by the full Senate.

State Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Lehigh, introduced the bill last October after doctors from his district showed him grim data on rising maternal mortality rates in the nation and the state. Pennsylvania’s rate has more than doubled since 1994, according to a December 2017 report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. When Mackenzie ran the idea of creating a statewide review process past House colleagues, several responded that media reports about maternal mortality, including our “Lost Mothers” series, had spurred them to consider similar measures.

Mackenzie’s bill calls for a committee of at least 14 members, most of them health care professionals, with a special emphasis on members working in communities most affected by maternal deaths and a lack of access to care. The measure does not include funding, and specifies that committee members would be unpaid, but Mackenzie said the state Department of Health would redirect existing staff to support it.

Another important aim in creating a statewide review process is making sure maternal deaths are being defined and tracked consistently, Mackenzie said. The state health department has tabulated annual totals for years, but counts only deaths that occur up to 42 days after pregnancy and not those that happen within a year, the standard used by the CDC and most review committees. When Philadelphia’s maternal mortality review panel compared the state’s numbers with its own for the city from 2010 to 2012, the state’s count was about 30 percent lower. Mackenzie’s bill would align Pennsylvania’s committee with the one-year standard.

“We’re hoping to save lives,” Mackenzie said in proposing the review committee. “Based on the results in other states, we think this is realistic.”