Homicide Is A Top Cause of Maternal Death

The risk of death from complications of pregnancy decreased by 99% during the twentieth century. In 1900, 850 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births were reported. Most of these deaths were caused by infection, bleeding and pregnancy-induced hypertension. Today, pregnant women in the United States die by homicide more than twice as often as all the leading causes of maternal mortality.

Pregnancy-related mortality is defined as the death of a woman while pregnant or within one year of the end of pregnancy from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy. Not until 2003 did the US begin requiring that death certificates indicate if a person had died while pregnant or within a year of the end of pregnancy. By 2018 all states had adopted this requirement. The new data unearthed a disturbing story.

Becoming pregnant increases the risk of death by homicide. Women between the ages of 10 and 44 who are pregnant or had a pregnancy end in the past year are killed at a rate 16% higher than those who are not pregnant. The research suggests that the majority of these women were killed by an…