Health Affairs January 13, 2026
The email notice hits like a ton of bricks: Another hospital is planning to close its inpatient obstetrics unit, citing financial concerns. We are weary of these announcements. The frequency hasn’t slowed despite political dialogue raising alarm over issues such as the nation’s declining birth rate and the maternal mortality crisis.
In 2023, more than 5.8 million reproductive-age women (15–44) in the United States lived in counties without hospital-based childbirth care. More than 2.6 million of those women live in rural areas. In fact, one in three rural reproductive-age women live in a county without childbirth care.
Serious Consequences For Pregnant Women and Families
Our team tracks and documents obstetric care access, and we recently published information on access to...
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