Troy, New York, kept the last birthing center in Rensselaer County. Trinity Health, the Michigan-based system that owns Samaritan Hospital, reversed its closure plan nearly a year after announcing it, following a campaign that pulled together the city's Republican mayor, Democratic state legislators, midwives, doulas, Planned Parenthood, and the local Catholic diocese.
That outcome is unusual, which is why reporting on the Troy campaign published this week is worth reading beyond the Hudson Valley. Since 2010, hospitals across the country have closed hundreds of maternity units as populations shrink and systems consolidate. Most of those communities did not get their unit back.
