Oregon’s senior U.S. senator, Ron Wyden, wants to prevent “maternity deserts” from spreading in Northeastern Oregon and rural parts of the state and nation beyond.

Wyden’s legislative efforts can’t spare Baker County women from the “incredibly precarious position” that the senator described during a June 17 press briefing about the draft bill he is co-sponsoring.

Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City closed its birthing center in August 2023 despite lobbying from local residents, Gov. Tina Kotek, Wyden and Oregon’s other senator, Jeff Merkley.

That closure meant Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande, 45 miles away, is the maternity center nearest Baker City and much of Baker County.

Wyden said during the press briefing that the loss of a maternity center at the Baker City hospital is part of a national trend.

From 2011 to 2021, about 25% of rural hospitals — 267 in all — also stopped delivering babies, the senator said.

Wyden called the trend an “epidemic.”

It is an appropriate word.

Multiple issues contribute to birthing center closures, including the difficulty in retaining nurses, the problem Saint Alphonsus officials cited when they announced the Baker City closure. The number of births is declining in many places, as well, including at the Baker City hospital.

But as with most matters in health care, money is a fundamental issue.

And addressing that challenge is a fundamental part of the Keeping Obstetrics Local Act that Wyden and 15 other senators, all Democrats, support.

(Wyden said he hopes to add Republican co-sponsors.)

Among other things, the bill would boost payments to rural hospitals for maternity care for women who are covered by Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for people with relatively low incomes. The higher payments would also go to hospitals where at least 60% of births are paid by Medicaid, the Indian Health Service or through self-pay.

The legislation would also give supplemental annual payments to hospitals with fewer than 300 births annually over the past three years.

That would benefit three hospitals in the region — Grande Ronde, Wallowa Memorial in Enterprise, and Blue Mountain in John Day. And were Saint Alphonsus to reopen the maternity center in Baker City, it, too, would qualify, as it has had far fewer than 300 annual births.

Good Shepherd in Hermiston, and CHI St. Anthony in Pendleton, both exceed the average of 300 births per year. Good Shepherd had a yearly average, from 2021-23, of 385, and CHI St. Anthony had an average of 334.

But both hospitals could potentially qualify for other financial aid under the bill.

Wyden conceded that rural hospitals face “stark economic realities.”

But the prospect of significantly more federal aid for rural hospitals, and particularly those with relatively few births, is welcome. The money could conceivably prevent other hospitals from following Saint Alphonsus in creating a maternity desert.

Daniel Grigg, CEO of Wallowa Memorial, called the draft bill “an important step towards protecting access to maternity care in rural Oregon and across the country.”

The most important aspect here is ensuring women have reasonable access to quality maternity care. The risks that maternity deserts pose are significant in our region, where winter storms can close highways and prevent mothers in labor from reaching a hospital.

But maternity centers in towns such as John Day and Enterprise are also vital to keeping current residents and attracting new ones who can contribute to our communities socially and economically.

Much like good schools, clean drinking water and a vibrant culture, obstetrics — and health care overall — are factors that people consider when they decide where to live.

Wyden’s bill offers no guarantees, of course.

But its provisions should give rural hospitals a notable advantage as they try to continue navigating financial and other obstacles that are sure to loom in the future.