As the Texas Legislature reconvenes tomorrow for a 30-day special session, one of the issues on the agenda is continuing the state's Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force.

The state faces a maternal mortality crisis, and state leaders must take action to prevent more Texas women from dying during pregnancy, childbirth, or in the weeks after delivery. Taking steps to support healthy moms and healthy pregnancies is also critical for the health and development of Texas babies.

As we wrote in our recent recap of the maternal and child health policy decisions made during the regular legislative session, lawmakers took a few steps to address this crisis but largely came up short. So we are pleased to see the Legislature is planning to use the Special Session to extend the Task Force.

The Legislature is prohibited from passing bills during the special session if they go outside the bounds of the Governor's official agenda for the session. However, if legislators are serious about saving lives and supporting women's health, they must go further than extending the Task Force. During the special session, legislators must publicly commit to implementing the recommendations that the Task Force develops for expanding access to maternal health care, confronting racial disparities, or tackling other challenges that the Task Force identifies.