'Babies are going to die,' says one of last doctors delivering babies in rural southwest Alabama

[Stuckinthebush]

https://www.al.com/news/2024/07/babies-are-going-to-die-says-one-of-last-doctors-delivering-babies-in-rural-southwest-alabama.html

Dr. Max Rogers doesn’t want to sugarcoat the fallout of closing one of the last labor and delivery departments in rural southwest Alabama.

An obstetrician/gynecologist at Grove Hill Memorial Hospital, Rogers once used euphemisms to describe what might happen if the small hospital ended the service. Now that the closure is set for Aug. 16, he wants to state his predictions clearly.

“I used to say, ‘poor outcomes,’” Rogers said. “I’m just going to tell it like it is. That means that babies are going to die, and mothers are going to die because we’re not going to have any obstetrical expertise to take care of them.”

Grove Hill Memorial Hospital on Wednesday announced the closure of its labor and delivery department. The facility sits in rural Clarke County, a good 90 minutes north of Mobile or two hours southwest of Montgomery. It is the last hospital in rural southwest Alabama still delivering babies.

(snip)


My comments:
This is my home state and I see it getting worse and worse. So, in rural Alabama there is no money to continue to have labor and delivery units. On top of that, they have draconian anti abortion laws that make it more likely that women and young girls will get pregnant. On top of that it is getting harder and harder to recruit OB/GYNs to the state. The dystopia that is Alabama is getting more dystopian by the day.