Maternity ward closures in California result in much more than strained health care

Published On: July 25, 2025

This story is part of

California Voices,

a commentary forum aiming to broaden our understanding of the state and spotlight Californians directly impacted by policy or its absence. Learn more

here

Guest Commentary written by

John McHugh

John McHugh is an obstetrician who has practiced for decades in Southern California. He is chair of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology for District IX, which includes California.

A few months ago, I worked my final night as an OB/GYN on labor and delivery at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in the Los Angeles County city of Glendale. I wanted my team of doctors, nurses and other staff to get together one last time and connect before we shut down the unit.

There were no patients in the labor rooms, no newborns in the nursery, and the halls were silent. So different from the nights when we pulled together to help so many, and were proud every time we assisted a new mother going home with her baby. The ambulances had already been told to take pregnant patients elsewhere. Patients had been rescheduled at other hospitals.

In the quiet of the postpartum unit, some staff shared that they had been born here; others told stories of celebrating the births of friends and family members. Many talked about how meaningful it was to be able to show their children the cribs they had been warmed in after birth. It reminded me how, when I was a child, each time we drove past the hospital where I was born, I waved, believing the bricks remembered me, too.

Today, as hospitals and even more

labor and delivery units

close in California and across the country, many will not have those memories. Even more tragic is that pregnant patients in many areas of the state will have a much harder time having a safe birth.

Nearly 60 hospitals and labor and delivery units

across California

have closed since 2012;

roughly 30%

of those were in Los Angeles County. Typically, when we think about maternity care access issues, we think of rural areas, where geography compounds long-standing problems.

Over half of rural counties across the U.S.

are without access to obstetric care. But according to

recent research

, one-third of urban U.S. hospitals did not offer obstetric services in 2022.

California labor and delivery units are closing for several reasons. Across the country, reimbursement for obstetric services is not keeping pace with inflation, forcing hospital administrators to decide if they can provide services that cost more than the payment they receive. U.S. birth rates also are declining. And the high cost of housing, especially in places like California, is pushing people to start families farther away from cities.

California labor and delivery units are closing at a rate

three times faster

than in other parts of the country.

Fewer hospitals means longer wait times for pregnant patients — including at the emergency room, where they will be increasingly forced to go instead of labor and delivery units. Many emergency medical service providers, without specially trained staff, are ill-equipped to stabilize and treat pregnant patients.

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