A NY hospital tried to close its birthing center. This city united to fight back

State Assembly member John T. McDonald III (center), a Democrat, worked to secure $5 million in state funding to help keep the Burdett Birth Center open in Troy, New York. Katherine Bruno/Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood hide caption

TROY, N.Y. — Like many residents of this aging industrial city on the Hudson River, Starletta Washington was stunned when she heard Troy's last remaining hospital planned to close its birthing center.

"It was devastating," said Washington, who heads the local YWCA. Washington was born at the hospital and had her children there. She couldn't believe families would now have to get to a hospital half an hour away or face the prospect of an emergency delivery.

"Nobody else was going to be born in the city of Troy unless they were born on a city bus, in the back of a cab, or, disgustingly, on the side of the street?" Washington said. "Blew my mind."

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Troy wasn't the first community to face this prospect. Since 2010, hospitals have closed hundreds of maternity units as cities and towns shrink and hospitals consolidate into larger systems.

Starletta Washington, who heads the YWCA in Troy, New York, was born at the hospital where Burdett Birth Center is located. Like many in the community, she says she was blindsided by Trinity Health's plan to close the center. Hannah Norman/KFF Health News hide caption

Elected officials from both major parties joined patient advocates, mothers, midwives, doulas and community leaders like Washington to challenge Trinity Health, the large Catholic health system that owns Troy's hospital and birthing center. The campaign even united Planned Parenthood and the Catholic diocese .