Sen. Ossoff Addresses End of Labor & Delivery Services at Northeast Georgia Hospital Due to Medicaid Cuts in Trump Budget

Lavonia, Ga. - St. Mary's Sacred Heart Hospital in Northeast Georgia is ending services for delivering mothers and newborn babies due to Medicaid cuts in Trump's budget law.

Last week, St. Mary's Health Care System announced that St. Mary's Sacred Heart Hospital in Lavonia will close its labor and delivery unit next month, 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/GYN in Lavonia.

Sen. Ossoff addressed the recent news at First Congregational Church in Atlanta yesterday.

"In Lavonia, St. Mary's Hospital, they've announced they will no longer provide obstetric services to delivering mothers because of decisions made by politicians. Evans Memorial Hospital in Southeast Georgia, confronting the fact that they may have to cut their ICU because of decisions made by politicians," Sen. Ossoff said. "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.

Last month, Evans Memorial Hospital in southeast Georgia warned they may have to cut their Intensive Care Unit (ICU), according to the hospital CEO, which he said is a direct result of the Trump budget law that guts Medicaid.

Click here to watch the Senator's remarks.

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