July 9, 2026
Thank you, Reverend Curtis, for your words, for your courage, and for opening your church to this community. And thank you to every nurse, every health professional, every patient, every elected official, every faith leader, every union member, and every community member who chose to stand here today.
My name is Rick Lucas, and I have the privilege of serving as President of the Ohio Nurses Association, a union of nurses and health professionals who believe healthcare is a human right and that every community deserves safe, accessible care.
Today isn’t just about one maternity unit. Today is about whether healthcare belongs to our communities or to greed-ridden corporate boardrooms.
I first met Reverend Curtis just a few weeks ago inside Delaware City Hall. We were there because OhioHealth had announced its decision to close the Grady Memorial Maternity Unit. The nurses came. The health professionals came. Patients came. Families came. One after another, they stood before City Council—not as politicians, not as lobbyists, but as people who have delivered babies, held mothers’ hands, comforted grieving families, and trusted this hospital with some of the most important moments of their lives.
Reverend Curtis had come simply to offer the opening prayer. Instead, he witnessed something extraordinary. He witnessed a community refusing to surrender. And when he stood back up to speak, he reminded everyone in that room that if we truly believe in protecting families, if we truly believe every child matters, then those values don’t end when the campaign signs come down. They demand action. Because what good is saying you’re pro-family if you’re willing to eliminate the very services families depend on?
Friends, you don’t need to be a healthcare executive. You don’t need an MBA. You don’t need to be a healthcare economist. You just need common sense. Closing maternity care in one of Ohio’s fastest-growing counties doesn’t make sense. Making laboring mothers drive farther doesn’t make sense. Making babies arrive in ambulances instead of delivery rooms doesn’t make sense. Making emergency departments care for laboring mothers without dedicated maternity services doesn’t make sense.
This isn’t common sense. It’s corporate accounting. Because that’s what too many healthcare corporations have become. They buy community hospitals. They centralize services. They strip away resources. They call it efficiency. Communities call it abandonment.
Let me ask you something:
Did OhioHealth build its billions on the backs of nurses who skipped lunch to care for another patient? YES!
Did OhioHealth build its billions on the backs of respiratory therapists, lab professionals, imaging staff, environmental services workers, physicians, and countless other healthcare workers who showed up every single day? YES!
Did OhioHealth build its reputation because communities trusted them with the birth of their children and the care of their loved ones? YES!
Then who deserves the investment? The executives…or the patients? The boardroom…or the bedside? The quarterly report…or the delivery room?
OhioHealth has the resources. They are sitting on billions of dollars in assets. Billions. Yet they’re telling mothers and babies there simply isn’t enough.
There’s enough for excessive compensation for executives. But not enough for maternity care.
There’s enough for expansion. But not enough for rural and suburban families.
Enough for corporate growth. Not enough for communities that trusted them.
That is a choice. And today this community is saying: We reject that choice.
Since 2018, more than two dozen maternity units have disappeared across Ohio. Two dozen communities. Two dozen hospitals. Thousands of families forced to travel farther during one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.
Every closure is sold with the same promises:
“Patients won’t be affected.”
“Care will still be available.”
“We’re improving access.”
We’ve heard it before. And communities across Ohio know exactly how that story ends. Less care. Longer drives. Delayed treatment. More risk. Another community left behind.
Today, Delaware says: Not one more.
Not one more maternity unit.
Not one more community sacrificed.
Not one more mother wondering if she’ll make it to the hospital in time.
Not one more baby put at unnecessary risk.
Not one more nurse forced to apologize because corporate executives took away the resources they need to provide safe care.
Not one more healthcare desert.
Not one more.
And let me say something directly to healthcare corporations across Ohio. This rally is bigger than Grady. Consider this your notice. If you think you can quietly gut local hospitals, if you think you can strip services away one department at a time, if you think communities won’t notice, if you think nurses will stay silent: You have badly underestimated us.
We are nurses. We are health professionals. We are union members. We are patients. We are neighbors. We are taxpayers. And we are the communities that built these hospitals in the first place.
We are done watching healthcare corporations cannibalize community hospitals while executive compensation climbs higher every year. We are done accepting that Wall Street thinking belongs in our maternity units. We are done allowing balance sheets to matter more than babies.
If you come for one community, you’ll answer to all of us.
That’s what unions do. We fight. Not just for ourselves. We fight for the patient who doesn’t have a lobbyist. We fight for the mother in labor. We fight for the newborn taking their first breath. We fight for the elderly patient who shouldn’t have to drive to another county for care. We fight for the next generation.
Because when nurses fight…Patients win.
When health professionals organize…Communities win.
When working people stand together…Corporate power loses.
That’s why healthcare corporations spend so much time trying to divide us. Because they know what happens when communities unite.
OhioHealth’s slogan says, “Together, WE can make a difference.” Today I’d like to make one small correction. Together, WE ARE MAKING THE DIFFERENCE.
Not executives. Not consultants. Not corporate lawyers. The people standing here. The people marching today. The nurses who refused to stay quiet. The patients who shared their stories. The pastors who opened their churches. The elected officials who found their courage. The unions that organized. The community that showed up. That’s who makes the difference.
It is now my honor to introduce someone who had the courage to stand up when it mattered. Someone who refused to accept that this community should simply accept OhioHealth’s decision. Please welcome Delaware City Councilmember Linsey Griffith.