Unsurprisingly, the CNN reporter was quick to blame the Texas Heartbeat Act, which took effect in September 2021. She made no effort even to discuss other possible reasons for the increase. Alternative causes include increased levels of illegal immigration and disruptions to prenatal care caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. She discusses only the Texas Heartbeat Act.

Additionally, the reporter engages in some statistical sleight of hand. While infant deaths increased in Texas in 2022, so did births. Both my Charlotte Lozier Institute study from November 2002 and a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association have found that the Texas Heartbeat Act resulted in an increase in the birth rate in Texas in 2022. Given that, it would be more appropriate to analyze the infant-mortality rate as opposed to infant deaths. My calculations indicate that the infant-mortality rate in Texas increased by 6.6 percent in 2022. While that may be a cause for concern, it is not as dramatic an increase as CNN is reporting.

Furthermore, it should also be noted that the infant mortality rate in Texas in 2022 was well within recent historical norms. In fact, the Texas infant-mortality rate was actually lower in 2022 than in any year from 2007 to 2017. That of course receives no mention in the CNN article.