Because of its effectiveness in reducing adverse birth outcomes, reducing disparities in access to prenatal care and improving access to timely care for all women has been a U.S. public health priority for the past two decades.
However, disparities remain in California. As in previous years, infants of white (88%) and Asian/Pacific Islander women (87%) in California had the highest percentages of timely prenatal care (i.e., in the first trimester) in 2012; infants of American Indian/Alaska Native women (69%) had the lowest.