Editor’s note: This is a letter the author sent to Odette Bolano, president and CEO of Saint Alphonsus Health System:

I am Mayor Aspy of Halfway, Oregon. I’m not sure you are familiar with the geographic layout of Baker County in Eastern Oregon. So please allow me to express the severity of the position we and other outlying communities will be in should the Birthing and Maternity Center be closed at St. Alphonsus Baker City, Oregon. Baker City is not the only affected city. Halfway is approximately a one-hour drive from Baker City during the summer months. In the winter months it can take nearly an extra hour to arrive in Baker City due to the drive going through mountain passes on a narrow road and is not continually maintained. Should the Birthing Center at St. Alphonsus, Baker City be closed, women will have to travel up to 3 hours to receive medical care during child labor and delivery. LifeFlight will not fly out here should inclement weather exist such as a snowstorm or summer storm. Nor will they transport an unstable patient. When they do fly to our location it’s sometimes a half hour to an hour before they touch down, with more time necessary to transfer the patient from the ambulance to LifeFlight. Do you understand the crisis this will cause? It is not only a women’s rights issue, but also a reproductive rights issue and a humanitarian crisis.

We are already in a medically underserved area. This decision could very well cost the lives of mothers and their unborn children. This is unacceptable and avoidable. Please consider very seriously the help that is being offered and extend your timeline for the closure from the 31st of July to an additional year as Baker County Commissioners have requested. Give some time for a reasonable solution to be found to keep the Birthing Center at St. Alphonsus in Baker City, Oregon open. Do not endanger and condemn the lives of women and children and their families, in our smaller outlying cities.

Mayor Nora Aspy

Halfway