A stringent immigration verification protocol implemented by the Dominican Republic has precipitated a dramatic 41% reduction in births to Haitian mothers within its public healthcare facilities. Enacted on April 21, 2025, the policy mandates status checks in hospitals, fundamentally altering access to maternity services for the Haitian community.
Official data reveals a stark decline from 32,967 recorded births to Haitian mothers in 2024 to just 19,434 in 2025. This represents a drop of 13,533 births across the nation’s 33 public hospitals. The policy’s impact was immediate and profound; within its first full month of implementation (May 2025), births plummeted to 849, a figure that remained consistently low throughout the year. Monthly totals for the remainder of 2025—including 886 in June, 902 in July, and a peak of just 1,430 in September—demonstrated a reduction of more than fifty percent compared to pre-protocol figures.
The downward trajectory has persisted into 2026. January 2026 saw 1,114 births, a number drastically lower than the 3,048 recorded in January 2024 and also below the 3,023 births that had been projected for that month prior to the policy’s enactment.
Geographic analysis of the data indicates a concentration of remaining births in border regions experiencing significant migration flows. Hospitals in Verón (La Altagracia province) recorded 628 Haitian births, followed by Rosa Duarte in Elías Piña (406), and Elio Fiallo in Pedernales (342). Conversely, numerous provinces—including La Vega, María Trinidad Sánchez, Monte Plata, and Santo Domingo—now report very low rates of births to Haitian mothers, signaling the widespread effectiveness of the border control measure.