Today, Union Hospital’s Family Birth Center in Elkton, Maryland, closed its doors for good, ending hospital-based labor and delivery care in Cecil County.1 Expectant mothers are now being directed to ChristianaCare’s Newark, Delaware campus, 13 miles away, or to Harford County, nearly 40 minutes further. For a mother in active labor, that distance is not an inconvenience. It’s a risk.
What makes this closure especially concerning is that it shouldn’t have happened here. Maryland has a hospital funding system designed to preserve critical services like labor and delivery in every corner of the state. Despite hospital leadership citing low birth rates,5 Cecil County’s births have held steady, with the population projected to grow.2 Yet ChristianaCare’s decision has eliminated 31 positions — including two physicians and two dozen nurses — and with them, the county’s only option for giving birth nearby.1
The burden won’t fall on every patient evenly. Many Maryland Medicaid patients aren’t accepted at ChristianaCare’s Delaware facilities, meaning the families with the fewest resources will travel the farthest for the most essential care.1
Cecil County isn’t an isolated case. Labor and delivery units are closing across the country, a trend we’ve been tracking. Closures are likely to increase with HR 1’s biggest cuts to Medicaid in the program’s history.3 Governor Moore’s office has already stepped in to negotiate interim Medicaid coverage for Cecil County families, which is a stopgap, but not a solution.4 We’re calling on the Governor and the Maryland Health Care Commission to ensure that any interim fix becomes a durable one, and to close the gap in the state’s funding system that was supposed to prevent closures like this from occurring in the first place. Additionally, every member of Congress should understand the direct line between federal Medicaid cuts and closures like this one. Every family deserves safe, accessible, quality care when they need it.