Urgent: Roseland Hospital Plans to Close Labor and Delivery
Dear Supporters,
It has been some time since we last shared an update, but our silence has not meant inaction.
Project34 has continued working in the background reviewing public records, submitting Freedom of Information Act requests, documenting concerns, communicating with elected officials and regulatory agencies, and demanding greater oversight of Roseland Community Hospital. We wanted to provide an update when we had meaningful information to share.
Unfortunately, what we have now learned is deeply concerning.
Project34 has learned that Roseland Community Hospital plans to close its Labor and Delivery Unit, reportedly effective December 1, 2026.
This is especially alarming because Roseland received public transformation funding based, in part, on its promise to improve and preserve maternal healthcare on Chicago’s Far South Side.
Roseland’s state-filed transformation proposal requested funding to renovate patient rooms, the nursing station, common areas, Caesarean and delivery spaces, and critical mechanical and medical-gas systems. The proposal included a 27-month plan to complete the improvements and begin expanded clinical operations.
The Roseland Medical District later reported that Roseland Hospital was awarded a $40 million transformation grant to modernize behavioral health services, its OB/GYN family-birth facilities, and a new surgery center.
R.E.A.C.H., the collaborative associated with the transformation plan, reported approximately $7.7 million in government-grant revenue in 2024. Its current website continues to promote a “historic investment” that includes a “state-of-the-art Labor & Delivery Unit.”
Yet, to our knowledge and based on what Project34 has observed, not one nail has been put into the wall to complete the promised Labor and Delivery renovations. Now, instead of seeing the improved maternity unit that public funding was supposed to support, our community is being told that the unit will close.
The community deserves immediate answers:
- How much transformation funding was awarded, released, spent, and remains unspent?
- How much was specifically allocated to Labor and Delivery?
- Why were the promised renovations never completed?
- Where did the money go?
- Has Roseland applied for and received the legally required State approval to discontinue obstetric services?
- How will current patients be notified and safely transferred?
- Where will Far South Side mothers go for prenatal care, emergency obstetric care, and delivery?
- Who was responsible for monitoring the funding and project milestones?
Illinois already faces a maternal-health crisis. The State’s latest report found that 91% of pregnancy-related deaths were potentially preventable and that Black women were three times more likely than White women to die from pregnancy-related medical conditions.
Roseland’s own transformation proposal acknowledged that the South Side was becoming an obstetric and maternity-care desert. The hospital argued that the remaining Labor and Delivery providers had to be preserved and used that need to support its request for public funding.
Now we need your help again.
Please share this petition and update with your family, neighbors, elected officials, community organizations, and members of the media. We are calling for:
- An immediate public explanation from Roseland Community Hospital;
- Full disclosure of all transformation-grant funding and expenditures;
- An independent State audit of the funding and unmet project milestones;
- Disclosure of any application to close or suspend Labor and Delivery;
- A public hearing in the Roseland community;
- A comprehensive patient-transition and maternal-care access plan; and
- No closure until the community receives complete answers.
More than 1,500 people signed this petition because they understood that Roseland Community Hospital is too important to operate without transparency, accountability, and effective oversight.
This is not healthcare transformation. It is another broken promise to a predominantly Black community that already suffers from inadequate healthcare access.
Who will take responsibility for overseeing these public funds, and who will be held accountable for ignoring the community’s repeated warnings?
Project34 will continue working, investigating, requesting records, and fighting for the safe, transparent, and accountable healthcare our community deserves.
In solidarity,
Project34
Accountability. Opportunity. Community.