Mississippi just declared a public health emergency after releasing devastating new data: the state’s infant mortality rate has risen to its highest level in over a decade—nearly double the national average.

More than 3,500 infants have died in Mississippi since 2014. The crisis is especially dire for Black families, where babies are more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday.

And yet, even as this crisis unfolds, Congress has allowed funding to lapse for the very programs designed to track and prevent infant deaths.

Programs like the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) and the CDC’s Safe Motherhood Initiative have been defunded or gutted. Staff have been laid off. Mississippi relied on PRAMS to collect vital data about prenatal care, sleep safety, birth outcomes, and postpartum support. Now, with no national surveillance, the state is being asked to fight blind.

We, the undersigned, are calling on Congress and HHS to:

• Fully reinstate funding for PRAMS and the Safe Motherhood Initiative at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for Mississippi and other states;
• Protect and expand maternal and infant health data programs used by states like Mississippi to detect dangerous trends and deploy effective interventions;
• Treat infant mortality as a national crisis—and support state-level emergency efforts with federal resources.
   

Without data, doctors, nurses, and public health leaders can’t do their jobs. Without funding, entire communities are left vulnerable.