Plausible Deniability

Those in the know at Air Products warned folks bearing bad news to CEO Dexter Baker to always speak toward his left ear. Dex was pretty much deaf on that side and was too vain to wear a hearing aid. This was a true win-win. The bearer of bad news could claim, “I reported the problem to the CEO.” Dex could claim, “I have no recollection of hearing that news.” Plausible deniability extended to both parties.

The Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee can also claim plausible deniability. The TMMMRC consists of 23 medical professionals tasked with analyzing deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth, publishing data, and presenting recommendations for improvement. There must be lots of childbirth incidents in Texas because the TMMMRC just finished analyzing data from 2021.

In June, 2021, Texas banned abortions after six weeks. That abortion ban with extremely limited exceptions has stood in the Lone Star State ever since. There have been horror stories about women bleeding out in waiting rooms until sepsis was found. Logically, the TMMMRC would be all over this.

Or maybe not. The TMMMRC decided to skip over maternal deaths in 2022 and 2023 “to be more contemporary and to review cases closer to the date when they actually occurred.” A member of the TMMMRC spoke anonymously out of fear of retribution from government officials, “If women are dying because of this policy affecting their lives, why would we skip over the years when it came into being?”

The TMMMRC did good work in the past. Its data showed that deaths per 100,000 live births in Texas increased from 17 in 2019 to 37 in 2021. Could that doubling be due to the abortion ban beginning in June, 2021? How bad might 2022 and 2023 be? How can Texas legislators claim plausible deniability if a state medical board publishes this damning data?

Maybe Matt Gaetz will be the next head of the TMMMRC. He’s an expert at plausible deniability.

By Ed Dufton