Apr 13, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by the Maine Seacoast Mission.
AUGUSTA—A bill meant to protect patients and the public when birthing centers are going to close passed both Maine legislative bodies in March. Governor Janet Mills signed the bill, April 3. The bill will begin immediately due to an emergency clause added to the bill via the legislature, which made it emergency legislation.
Senator Nicole Grohoski (D-Ellsworth) said on her social media that the bill was ”informed by the closure of the MDI Hospital’s Labor and Delivery Unit, as well as other recent birthing unit closures.”
On March 18, the Maine Senate unanimously passed LD 2189, which requires that hospitals provide at least 120 days’ notice before closing or changing the level of care for maternity or newborn services.
The Maine House also voted that it ought to pass, 139-2.
“While this doesn’t change the reality for the MDI region, it gives both patients and the state more time to react to, and potentially prevent, additional closures,” Grohoski wrote.
In the past ten years, ten Maine hospitals have closed their birthing centers. Mount Desert Island Hospital closed its last year. This March, Bangor’s Downeast OB/GYN in Bangor announced it will close in July.
“Too many Mainers live in a childbirth desert, having to travel for hours to give birth,” said Sen. Mike Tipping (D-Orono). “Requiring a three-month period before a closure so patients can make plans and solutions can be explored is the least we should be doing to address the health care crisis in rural Maine.”
Mount Desert Island Hospital announced, March 27, 2025, that it would be closing its birthing unit, July 1 of the same year. The decision caused protests by some community members and nurses. There are currently less than 20 birthing units in hospitals throughout the state.
Declining birth rates were cited as a reason for the choice, which comes as the hospital is in the beginning of multi-year, multi-million dollar expansion plans, which call for a doubling of emergency room space.
Those declining birth rates are not isolated to Mount Desert Island.
Maine birth rates have decreased from 12,589 in 2015 to 11,621 in 2024. The Mount Desert Island Hospital numbers have followed that trend. There were nine births in 2025 at the time of the closure announcement and 32 in 2024. Ten years ago, approximately 100 babies were born in a year.
According to Maine Division of Public Health Systems data, Bar Harbor’s resident births have fluctuated between 37 and 26 between 2014 and 2023, with the lowest amount of babies born in 2020 (19). Similarly resident births for Mount Desert Island, Trenton, Frenchboro, Cranberry Isles, and Swan’s Island have decreased from 98 in 2014 to 75 in 2023. Hancock County resident births have decreased from 489 to 383 in that same time period.
Between 2011 and 2023, 217 United States hospitals have shuttered labor and delivery departments.
“In the past year alone, we’ve seen four hospitals across Maine close their birthing centers, forcing families to scramble and create new birthing plans with very little notice,” said Rep. Michelle Boyer (D-Cape Elizabeth). “This bill will provide an important protection for patients as we work to ensure access to care in a shifting health care landscape.”
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