Protect Our Care counts 52 maternity wards closed since Congress passed its July 2025 Medicaid cuts; two hospitals cited the cuts as a reason

The count. Protect Our Care, a health-care advocacy group, counted 52 hospital maternity wards that have closed since HR1, the 2025 Republican tax-and-spending law that cuts Medicaid funding and tightens eligibility, was announced in July 2025. (TS: for scale, the University of Minnesota counted 67 hospitals that dropped obstetric care in 2024 alone) The group lists eight more with closures announced. Its count does not show that the law caused every closure. The named cases. Two hospitals did name it. Centra Southside Community Hospital in Farmville, Virginia, and St Mary's Sacred Heart Hospital in Lavonia, Georgia, both cited upcoming federal Medicaid changes when they shut their units. “Losing these services means fewer places to deliver safely and fewer options for pregnancies requiring specialized care.” — Erin Jones, March of Dimes Still open. How many of the 52 trace to the law. The tally alone does not show why each ward closed.

Where the two named closures leave expectant mothers:

• Farmville families are sent to Centra Virginia Baptist Hospital in Lynchburg, about an hour's drive away.
• Sacred Heart says the nearest delivery hospital is about 30 minutes from Lavonia; CBS reported 45-90 minute trips to Athens or Greenville.
• Centra Southside delivered fewer than 200 babies in 2024, under four a week, and also reported a shortage of obstetricians.