Press Release: All Deserve Quality Maternal Care in Texas

Statement from the Texas Nurses Association

All Deserve Quality Maternal Care in Texas

Over the weekend of November 15th and 16th of 2025, the Texas Nurses Association became aware of a controversy at Dallas Regional Medical Center involving a nurse and a patient that captured public attention. The Association heard concerns from its members and the public about racially inequitable treatment in healthcare and the safety of those involved in the incident. The Association does not comment on individual cases due to the potentially prejudicial nature of such comments; however, we hear your concerns and share a commitment to improving care for patients and eliminating racial inequities in healthcare. 

Racial inequities in healthcare are multifactorial, but we can make material improvements as professionals and members of the public. We do not have to accept these trends as permanent or inevitable. 

Reversing these trends begins with the way we treat one another on an interpersonal and professional level and extends to broader, systematic changes that need to be made. 

All nurses are expected to follow the American Nurses Association’s Code of Ethics. In fact, its first provision speaks to this point: “The nurse practices with compassion and respect for the inherent dignity, worth, and unique attributes of every person.” Data continually points to the crisis facing our state. The “Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee and Department of State Health Services Joint Biennial Report 2024” reflects a pattern of racially related outcomes, with non-Hispanic Black women facing the highest maternal death rate as well as the highest rate of severe maternal morbidity.  According to the report, in 2021, the [severe maternal morbidity] rate for non-Hispanic Black women was 134.4 cases per 100,000 delivery hospitalizations, compared to: 

• 82.6 cases per 100,000 delivery hospitalizations for non-Hispanic women of other races; 
• 82.2 cases per 100,000 delivery hospitalizations for Hispanic women; and 
• 72.6 cases per 100,000 delivery hospitalizations for non-Hispanic White women. 

Healthcare systems and professional organizations in Texas must also act to alleviate the systemic barriers in healthcare today. At TNA, our EMPOWER committee in 2024 began studying historical measures that fostered systemic racism within the organization and the nursing profession. To ensure all voices are heard, the committee has spent the past several months developing a survey to better understand how racism appears in our work, and how we can eliminate it across nursing and healthcare delivery. This survey will be disseminated to nurses statewide in 2026. There is no quick fix to breaking down these life-threatening barriers; but we cannot avoid doing the work of dismantling systemic racism because it’s hard to do.   

As nurses, we have a responsibility to treat all patients with the same level of care. As our Code directs, “It is essential to address health disparities by providing culturally concordant care, fostering patient-centered communication, and engaging in allyship to improve patient outcomes.” 

We encourage all Texas nurses to take this opportunity to review their professional ethical standards, and join us in working to alleviate the systemic barriers to create a health system that works for everyone.

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About the Texas Nurses Association
The Texas Nurses Association (TNA) is a statewide membership-based professional association of licensed nurses. Founded in 1907, TNA is the most inclusive nursing association in Texas and the largest state nursing association in the country.

Our members represent all segments of nursing practice — bedside to administration, consulting to advanced practice, and education to legislation — and all practice settings, including hospital, home and community health, public health, higher education, long-term care, school health and policy. As diverse as they are, TNA members share a common purpose: Advancing excellence in nursing. Visit www.texasnurses.org.