The Call to Action
We, the undersigned, urge Brown University Health to retain the Noreen Stonor Drexel Birthing Center at Newport Hospital, recognizing its indispensable role in advancing women’s health and equity, and its value as a vital resource for the entire community.

The Story
On July 15, the Newport City Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting the Noreen Stonor Drexel Birthing Center at Newport Hospital, amid growing concern that Brown University Health is considering cutting or closing the facility. The Council convened a special meeting to address the issue.

While the City Council does not control hospital operations, the resolution sends a clear and urgent public message. It calls on Brown Health and Newport Hospital leadership to maintain full operations at the birthing center, urges state officials and legislators to take immediate action to preserve local maternity care, and pledges the city’s support in identifying solutions to keep the center open.

The Impact
The threat is real: Aquidneck Island could lose its only labor and delivery unit—where 489 babies were born last year and 318 in the first half of 2025. That possibility galvanized nearly 200 residents to gather at City Hall Tuesday night—many of them mothers with young children, and hospital staff still in scrubs.

Latisha Michel, a certified doula, spoke passionately about the consequences. “Shutting down the birthing center wouldn’t just erase a vital piece of our community’s health infrastructure—it would leave many birthing people with impossible choices,” she said. “Those without reliable transportation would face 35- to 45-minute journeys to give birth, risking delivery in transit, separation from support systems, or care in unfamiliar and overstretched hospitals.”

Other speakers underscored the strain already placed on ambulance services, the growing pressure on Newport Hospital’s Emergency Room, and the disproportionate impact on marginalized families in Newport and Middletown. As one speaker put it, “This is fundamentally an issue of equity.”

“Budgets are always moral documents,” one person reminded the packed chamber. Another added, “And when budgets are balanced, it is always on the backs of women, children, and families. No more!”