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FACT SHEET: Maternal Health Awareness Day: Republican Medicaid Cuts Are Wiping Out Maternity Care

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January 23, 2026
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Across the country, Republicans’ massive cuts to Medicaid are shutting down maternity care providers, forcing pregnant women to travel farther to receive critical care. Since the passage of Trump and Republicans’ Big, Ugly Bill, 40 maternity care providers have closed, announced closures, or been placed at risk for future cuts or closures. Especially in emergencies, proximity to maternity care is a matter of life or death for moms and babies. Republicans’ war on health care is putting new and expecting mothers in imminent danger. Until Trump and the GOP start putting working families before billionaires and big corporations, the maternal and infant mortality crisis in America will only get worse. 

Medicaid Cuts Accelerate Maternity Care Closures in Rural America. Over 25 Maternity Wards Have Closed Since the Passage of the Big, Ugly Bill. Delivering safe and quality maternity care is expensive. Similar to an emergency room, labor and delivery units must be staffed 24/7 to be able to receive patients in the middle of childbirth. This translates to high costs that are difficult to recoup. More than 120 rural hospitals that deliver babies operate at a financial loss, so when cuts are made, labor and delivery units are often the first to go. Between 2020 and 2025, over 100 rural hospitals closed or announced that they would close their maternity care wards. 29 of these closures happened in 2025 alone. Rural hospitals rely on Medicaid funding to continue delivering babies. In 2023, Medicaid covered 41 percent of all births and nearly half in rural America. While Medicaid pays less than private insurance for obstetric services, more patients rely on Medicaid for health care coverage in rural areas. Republican cuts to the program will make offering maternity care services recovering the cost of birth even more difficult for these hospitals. 

Freestanding Birth Centers Are Also Struggling to Stay Open. Birth centers provide care for low-risk pregnancies, typically through doulas and midwives. These providers can often be the only option for expecting mothers in maternal health deserts and are sometimes preferred by communities of color who have felt marginalized, dismissed, or unsafe in more medical settings. These centers are now facing the same funding problems as obstetrics units in hospitals. While giving birth at a birthing center typically costs less than giving birth in a hospital, Medicaid reimburses birth centers at a lower rate than hospitals. With Republican cuts to Medicaid, this funding issue will only be exacerbated as more people go uninsured. 

Obstetrics Unit Closures Lead to Riskier Births. Over 35 percent of counties across America are considered maternity care deserts. Pregnant people who live in maternity care deserts have poorer health before pregnancy, less prenatal care, and experience higher rates of preterm birth. With more and more closures occurring, pregnant women have to travel an additional 30 to 50 minutes to get to the closest hospital with maternity services. Less access to care means expecting mothers are more likely to give birth in riskier settings, such as an emergency room, at home, or in vehicles on the way to the hospital. This has been associated with complications postpartum and higher rates of maternal and infant mortality. 

Maternal Health Tracking Eliminated by Trump and DOGE. The United States has far higher maternal and infant mortality rates than other high-income nations. These rates come with significant racial and geographic disparities. In early 2025, the Centers for Disease Control’s Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAM) was shut down, and key staff were eliminated by President Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE. PRAM was responsible for collecting data from mothers on their experiences before, during, and after pregnancy. This data collection is extremely important in informing policymakers and health experts of possible solutions to maternal health disparities and outcomes. PRAM has been credited with improving maternal health efforts since its creation in 1987. Without the collection of this important data, public health experts, policymakers, researchers, and advocates will lose their main source for tracking trends and progress to assess the effectiveness of programs and decide which should continue to be funded. 

40 Maternity Care Providers Across the Country Have Closed, Announced Closures, Or Are at Risk Of Closing Since Republicans Passed The Big, Ugly Bill: 

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