TEXAS HOUSE VOTES ON MATERNAL MORTALITY STUDY

  

Texas lawmakers are pushing with new urgency efforts to study a skyrocketing rate of pregnancy-related deaths after previous attempts stalled earlier this year.

The Texas House on Tuesday approved more data collection after a study last year that found that Texas' maternal mortality rate doubled between 2010 and 2012. Researchers say rate wasn't only the highest in the U.S., but the developed world.

State senators approved a bill last week authored by local State Senator Lois Kolkhorst that would give a state task force more time to study why an alarming number of Texas mothers are dying less than a year after childbirth.

Lawmakers now hope to find answers in measures that would continue and broaden the scope of a state task force on maternal mortality and morbidity.

Republican infighting sank similar bills earlier this year. But Gov. Greg Abbott revived the issue as part of a 30-day special legislative session that ends in August.