October 29, 2026
(YOUNGSTOWN, OH)—The Ohio Nurses Association (ONA) strongly condemns Mercy Health’s decision to eliminate labor and delivery services at St. Joseph Warren Hospital, adding another Ohio community to the growing list of those losing access to essential maternity care.
This is more than the closure of a hospital department. It is another troubling example of healthcare systems consolidating services, centralizing resources, and shifting the consequences onto patients, families, and frontline nurses and health professionals.
Healthcare consolidation may make financial sense on a corporate balance sheet. That does not mean it makes sense for a mother in labor, a newborn in distress, or a family racing against the clock during a medical emergency.
Mercy Health has framed this decision as an effort to enhance maternity care by directing deliveries to St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital. But improving services at one location does not erase the loss of care at another. For families who now face longer travel times, the consequences can be serious. Obstetric emergencies such as severe hemorrhage, placental abruption, and eclampsia require immediate intervention. Additional travel time can mean delayed treatment, increased complications, and potentially devastating outcomes for mothers and babies.
A hospital system’s operational efficiency should never come at the expense of a patient’s ability to reach lifesaving care.
Unfortunately, Warren is part of a troubling statewide pattern. At least 16 Ohio hospitals have ended inpatient maternity or labor and delivery services in the past five years, closing local units or consolidating services at other facilities. These hospitals include:
- OhioHealth Grady Memorial Hospital in Delaware
- OhioHealth Shelby Hospital in Shelby
- OhioHealth Van Wert Hospital in Van Wert
- Upper Valley Medical Center in Troy
- Miami Valley Hospital South in Centerville
- University Hospitals Portage Medical Center in Ravenna
- University Hospitals Lake West Medical Center in Willoughby
- University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center in Ashland
- Summa Health’s Barberton Campus
- Mercy Health St. Charles Hospital in Oregon, near Toledo
- Mercy Health Fairfield Hospital in Fairfield
- Mercy Health West Hospital in Cincinnati
- Henry County Hospital in Napoleon
- Highland District Hospital in Hillsboro
- Community Memorial Hospital in Hicksville
- McLaren St. Luke’s Hospital in Maumee
Each closure represents another community losing access to local hospital-based maternity care.
The March of Dimes’ 2026 maternity care findings report that approximately 43% of Ohio counties lack a hospital or birth center offering labor and delivery services. These closures may be presented as individual business decisions, but collectively they represent a growing crisis in access to maternal healthcare.
When healthcare systems grow larger while the number of places patients can receive care grows smaller, Ohioans have every right to question whether consolidation is serving patients or serving corporations.
The consequences extend beyond increased drive times. Maternity unit closures can displace experienced nurses and health professionals, dismantle specialized care teams, strain receiving hospitals, and place additional pressure on emergency departments and first responders. Without adequate staffing, resources, and emergency preparedness, these decisions risk creating dangerous gaps in care.
ONA calls on Mercy Health to provide full transparency regarding the impact of this closure on patient travel times, emergency obstetric care, staffing of nurses and health professionals, and the ability of St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital to safely accommodate additional patients. Simply telling families to seek care elsewhere is not an adequate patient safety plan.
ONA also urges Ohio lawmakers and regulators to strengthen oversight of essential healthcare service closures, require meaningful community impact assessments, and ensure frontline nurses and health professionals have a voice in decisions that directly affect patient care.
A healthcare system is not stronger simply because it is bigger. It is stronger when patients can access safe, timely, high-quality care where and when they need it.
Ohio’s mothers and babies are not line items on a corporate spreadsheet. Nurses and health professionals are not interchangeable resources, and access to safe maternity care should never be treated as an expendable expense.
Ohio cannot keep closing maternity units and call it progress.
ONA will continue to demand accountability and fight for healthcare systems that put patients, nurses and health professionals, and communities ahead of corporate convenience.
No Ohio family should have to wonder whether they can reach a hospital in time to safely deliver their baby or receive lifesaving care during an obstetric or gynecological emergency.
The Ohio Nurses Association is Ohio’s professional union for nurses and health professionals, dedicated to uniting and empowering nurses and healthcare workers, championing their rights, promoting professional practice, and advocating for quality care for all patients in Ohio.
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