Mississippi health officials have declared a public health emergency after new data revealed a spike in infant deaths, causing the highest infant mortality rate in the state in over a decade.
In Mississippi, there were 9.7 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births in 2024, which is almost double the most recent national average of 5.5 deaths per 1,000, according to the state Department of Health. The state has long struggled with high infant mortality rates. Since 2014, there have been 3,527 babies who have died before their first birthday in the state, public health officials said.
The leading causes of infant deaths in Mississippi include congenital malformations, preterm birth, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome.
“Too many Mississippi families are losing their babies before their first birthday,” said State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney. “We cannot and will not accept these numbers as our reality.”
The data also showed that Black infants in Mississippi are twice as likely as white infants to die before their first birthday — echoing a concerning national trend of Black infants having the highest mortality rate across all races.
In 2024, 15.2 Black infants per 1,000 live births died, compared to 5.8 of every 1,000 live births of white infants, according to health department data.
Mississippi State Department of Health officials say they hope by declaring a public health emergency, they will be able to take quicker actions to address the troubling trend.
Health officials’ plan includes expanding prenatal services in areas without obstetric providers, expanding community health programs and addressing gaps in maternal care at hospitals and medical providers.
Meanwhile, changes to Medicaid under President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” will disproportionately affect Mississippi. Nearly six out of ten births in the state are financed by Medicaid, according to KFF, which provides health policy analysis.
Rural Americans have long relied on Medicaid, and cuts to federal Medicaid spending approved in the new law would exceed $155 billion in rural areas over the next decade, according to KFF.
A study earlier this year also found that increases in infant mortality coincided with states that enacted abortion bans or severe restrictions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Across the 14 states where abortions were banned or prohibited after six weeks of pregnancy by laws that took effect between September 2021 and August 2022, there were an estimated 478 infant deaths that would not have occurred if the restrictions were not in place, according to the study published in JAMA.
After the bans took effect, infant mortality rates were 6.26 per 1,000 live births, compared with an expected rate of 5.93 per 1,000, a relative increase of 5.60 percent.
Mississippi banned all abortions except to save the life of a pregnant person or in cases of rape or incest after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
