A northeast Georgia hospital is ending services for delivering mothers and newborn babies.
St. Mary’s Health Care System announced that St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital in Lavonia will close its labor and delivery unit next monthThis is an external link, consolidating maternity services at its main hospital in Athens nearly an hour away due in part to Medicaid cuts in the Trump budget law.
The hospital system also said St. Mary’s Medical Group will discontinue care at Clear Creek OB/GYNThis is an external link in Lavonia.
And Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) was also quick to point the finger of blame at the Trump administration.
“It’s not a mystery that in a flourishing society, the means of achieving health and long life are a right accessible to all, and not just to those who live in the right place or have the means, especially when the disappearance of those services for the people is a result of the pursuit of other priorities, namely to further enrich those who already have the most.”
This is now the second rural Georgia hospital to cut or anticipate cuts to vital services as a direct result of Trump’s budget law, Ossoff added.
Last month, Evans Memorial Hospital in southeast Georgia warned they may have to cut their Intensive Care Unit (ICU)This is an external link, according to the hospital CEO, which he said is a direct result of the Trump budget law that guts Medicaid.