OPB’s First Look: Losing maternity care in rural Oregon

Subscribe to OPB’s First Look to receive Northwest news in your inbox six days a week.

Good morning, Northwest.

In 2023, Baker City lost its maternity ward at the local hospital, St. Alphonsus.

That’s forced expectant parents to travel longer distances to deliver babies. Some have even left the area altogether to be closer to hospitals with obstetrics programs.

We lead off this morning’s newsletter with a look at how Medicaid cuts approved by the Trump administration could put more maternity wards at risk in rural Oregon.

In other news, Oregon’s special session is on hold again after a multiday hiatus. Democratic lawmakers in Salem had planned to vote on a transportation funding package today, but a key senator is not well enough to take part.

Also, Mount St. Helens did not erupt yesterday. We round out the newsletter by explaining what that big cloud of dust around the volcano was.

Here’s your First Look at Wednesday’s news.

— Bradley W. Parks

Teela Banister holds her 18-month-old daughter Lakelynn at their rural home in Baker City, Ore.
*Kyle Green / InvestigateWest*

A rural Oregon town lost its maternity ward. As Trump’s Medicaid cuts loom, other hospitals may be next

Teela Banister is one of many parents in Eastern Oregon’s Baker County grappling with the loss of reliable, local obstetrics care in the two years since St. Alphonsus closed its program.

She gave birth to her second child in the car midway through the hourlong drive from Baker to the closest hospital in La Grande, her husband still barreling down the highway.

The collective experiences of parents in the area offer a sobering glimpse of challenges many more families in rural Oregon could face under changes to Medicaid made as part of President Donald Trump’s signature tax cuts and spending package. (Danielle Dawson)

Learn more

Echo Mountain, northwest of Eugene, is among areas where new roads have been banned for more than two decades because of a policy known as the roadless rule. The U.S. Forest Service proposed rescinding that rule in August 2025, and gave the public about a month to provide input.
*Chandra LeGue / Photo courtesy of Oregon Wild*

5 things to know this morning

Leaders in the Oregon Senate have once again delayed a vote on a transportation funding bill, amid concerns about the health of a senator who is key to its passage. (Dirk VanderHart)

Gov. Tina Kotek is directing all state agencies to hold positions vacant for longer, halt all out-of-state travel for conferences and brace for much larger budget reductions in the future as the state prepares to lose more than $15 billion in federal funding. (Lauren Dake)

Isolated wild areas could soon see new development as the Trump administration moves to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, known as the roadless rule. That policy has blocked most new road construction and logging on about 2 million acres each in Oregon and in Washington. (April Ehrlich)

Why do Southwest Washington schools seem to have more strikes? History, relationships and news media could all play a part. (Natalie Pate)

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing the state of Oregon, accusing its leaders of violating federal law by failing to abide by the Trump administration’s demands to provide information about its voters. (Bryce Dole)

A morning sunrise at Heritage University in Toppenish, Wash., in an undated photo.
*Courtesy of Heritage University*

Headlines from around the Northwest

Providence will permanently close pediatric intensive care unit in Portland area (Amelia Templeton)

From science labs to scholarships, Pacific Northwest college programs at risk after Trump administration cuts (Tiffany Camhi)

Vancouver Public Schools announce tentative deal with union to avert strike (Erik Neumann)

Listen in on OPB’s daily conversation

“Think Out Loud” airs at noon and 8 p.m. weekdays on OPB Radio, opb.org and the OPB News app. Today’s planned topics (subject to change):

How the Oregon film industry is faring

OSU-led project aims to reduce whale entanglements in Oregon and beyond

Volcanic ash rises above Mount St. Helens in Washington, as seen by a U.S. Geological Survey webcam, Sept. 16, 2025. The volcanic ash from the 1980 eruption was picked up by strong easterly winds.
*Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Surve*

Mount St. Helens in Washington is not erupting, the National Weather Service reassured residents yesterday morning.

That came after scientists received reports of a large plume rising above the volcano, which turned out to be volcanic ash from the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption.

The ash cloud has a brownish hue similar to a small forest fire, said Holly Weiss-Racine, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

“It definitely piqued people’s interest and pilots’ interest early this morning when people wondered if it was potentially an eruption,” she said. (Riley Martinez)