In a report released by the Ohio Department of Health, the state reported that 929 babies died before their first birthday in 2019, down from 938 a year earlier. This marks the third year in a row that infant mortality dropped in Ohio.
Despite the drop in the overall rate, Black infants were more than 2.8 times more likely to die than white infants last year.
Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday he is forming the Eliminating Racial Disparities in Infant Mortality task force. The new group's goal: Reduce infant mortality and eliminate racial disparity by 2030. The task force will begin working in January to "create actionable recommendations for interventions, performance and quality improvement, data collection, and policies to advise the Governor’s Office of Children’s Initiatives on improving Ohio’s investments and strategies in addressing racial inequities in birth outcomes.”
Read the full 2019 Infant Mortality Report HERE