Maternal Mortality Rates in the United States, 2020

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report on maternal mortality rates for 2020 that documents a 14 percent increase in the number of maternal deaths between 2019 and 2020. The inequities within the report were stark: Black women experienced the most deaths as one-third of the pregnant women and new mothers who died in 2020 were Black, though Black Americans make up just over 13 percent of the population.