The California maternity wards that are staying open

Over the last decade, nearly 50 maternity wards have closed across California, with more than half shutting down in just the last four years. Seventeen were in Los Angeles County, where maternity ward closures have far outpaced the region’s declining birth rate.

But there’s a notable exception: Nonprofit and government-run hospitals, write CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang, Ana B. Ibarra and Erica Yee. To maintain their tax-exempt status, nonprofit facilities, such as Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in L.A., are legally bound to consider community needs when planning their services.

That’s in contrast to for-profit hospitals owned by multi-state corporations: 13 of the 17 hospitals owned by for-profit companies shuttered their labor and delivery wards, disproportionately impacting low-income patients, particularly Black women. 

More than half of these closed wards shut down even as the hospitals were making millions of dollars for investors. One hospital earned 13 times more than the median hospital operating margin in California when it stopped delivering babies.

Providing maternity care services isn’t profitable: In addition to the labor costs of a specialized staff and high malpractice risk, Medi-Cal, California’s health insurance program for low-income residents, has the country’s fifth lowest reimbursement rate for obstetrics.

But absorbing patients left behind by the closures can be overwhelming to the remaining maternity wards. As one of the last maternity wards in the area, MLK is mired in financial woes: It loses more than $2 million a year on its maternity ward, and it ran a $42 million deficit in 2023.

To help keep serving expectant mothers, hospital administrators argue that the state could raise how much Medi-Cal pays for births. Lawmakers last year approved a pay boost for some obstetric services, which went into effect in January, but additional raises are unlikely given the state’s multibillion-dollar shortfall.

Learn more about MLK’s fight to stay open in Kristen, Ana and Erica’s story.

Speaking of hospitals: CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Ryan Sabalow dives into a bill to increase penalties for those who assault emergency room doctors, nurses and other workers. The bill has divided Democratic legislators, narrowly passing the Senate’s five-member public safety committee on Tuesday. Sens. Scott Wiener of San Francisco (who was the lone “no” vote) and Nancy Skinner of Oakland (who did not vote) opposed the legislation, arguing that increasing criminal penalties doesn’t deter crime. 

Assemblymember Freddie Rodriguez, a Chino Democrat and author of the bill, proposed the measure after his daughter, a respiratory technician, was recently assaulted on the job: “This violence is unacceptable, but for many of the health care heroes, they view workplace violence as just part of the job,” he said during the hearing.

Read more about the ER worker bill in Ryan’s story.

CalMatters is hosting its first Ideas Festival in Sacramento, kicking off Wednesday with a summit on broadband access sponsored by Broadband Breakfast and a session on the economic power of California’s nonprofits, whose association held a rally at the state Capitol on their designated day.  

Wednesday’s lineup also highlighted some hot-button issues: 

The disinformation effect: CalMatters politics intern Jenna Peterson sat in on a conversation between CalMatters CEO Neil Chase and former U.S. attorney and MSNBC commentator Barbara McQuade. She’s the author of “Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America,” and discussed the threat of political disinformation, especially at the local level as news outlets shutter: “We lose the ability to see what’s going on in our government at those very important levels, the levels that actually affect their lives the most.” 

McQuade also said that to curb disinformation, lawmakers should pass legislation regulating internet algorithms, private data scraping and political advertising. Read more here.

AI accountability: CalMatters tech reporter Khari Johnson moderated a panel on how California is keeping tabs on artificial intelligence. The conversation focused on how policies regulating AI should be centered around people, not just tech industry insiders, and should help address issues regarding inequality, privacy and access to the technology, writes CalMatters economy reporter Levi Sumagaysay. 

Gerard de Graaf, a senior tech envoy for the European Union, is leading the union’s partnership with California to regulate AI. At the panel, de Graaf said both parties “could set the standard for the world” in AI policy. Read more here.

More discussion today: It’s day two of the Ideas Festival. It’s sold out, but free virtual tickets are still available here. Find out more from our engagement team.

As the Gaza war continues, so do pro-Palestinian demonstrations on California college campuses.

Early Wednesday morning, 13 protesters were arrested after briefly barricading themselves inside the president’s office at Stanford University. The group was made up of both students and alumni, according to the Los Angeles Times, and were demanding the university divest from Israel. 

According to a letter by Stanford President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez, a public safety officer was injured by protesters during the occupation. The inside of the building was also damaged, and the main quad was vandalized with “extensive graffiti,” though it is unclear whether the graffiti was written by people associated with Stanford or outsiders. 

The statement also said that if any students were among those arrested, they would be immediately suspended, and if any were seniors, they would not be allowed to graduate. On Wednesday, the university dismantled a pro-Palestinian encampent that had been up since April, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

And the University of California — where graduate student workers at six campuses are striking in protest of the university’s response to student-led pro-Palestinian demonstrations in May — is suing the UAW 4811 labor union for breach of contract. 

In a 162-page lawsuit filed Wednesday, the university is asking an Orange County court to halt the strike, arguing that the walkoff is unlawful and has a “political and social focus.” As CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn recently explained, union members are striking at the Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, Davis, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Irvine campuses, collectively involving as many as 31,000 workers.

More on campus protests: In our new partnership with PBS SoCal, we have a video segment by CalMatters investigative reporter Sergio Olmos and producer Robert Meeks on our story on how the California Highway Patrol used munitions against demonstrators at UCLA. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal and is available on YouTube. Read more about this new venture from our engagement team. 

For years, thousands of California community college students have left financial aid on the table. Now, there could be a fix. Find out how from CalMatters’ Adam Echelman.