Idaho bill to require study of Idaho maternal deaths signed into law

BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) — On Monday morning, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 399 into law, authorizing the Board of Medicine— the state agency in charge of regulating physicians and surgeons— to collect and review information related to maternal deaths in Idaho. The bill also requires the board to provide the Legislature with an annual report on numbers of instances of maternal mortality.

The bill is set to take effect on July 1.

The legislation came after the Idaho Legislature allowed the state’s maternal mortality review committee to expire in July. The review committee previously functioned to identify, review, and analyze maternal deaths in Idaho while also offering recommendations to address those deaths.

The maternal mortality review committee’s final report used data from 2021, and it showed that Idaho’s maternal mortality rate nearly doubled from 2018 to 2021. The report also found that most Idaho maternal deaths in 2021 could have been prevented if the individuals had received better education, possessed a deeper understanding of health issues, had improved access to health care and financial resources, and addressed mental health conditions.

But the committee’s expiration made Idaho the only U.S. state without a maternal mortality review committee. Since then, there has been no publicly available data on Idaho maternal mortality rates. 

House Bill 399 was sponsored by Rep. Megan Blanksma, R-Hammett, and it had support from several doctors, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. The bill passed the House of Representatives in a 52-17 vote, and a 25-10 vote in the Senate with opposition only coming from Republicans in both chambers. No Democrats voted in opposition to the bill.