Wisconsin-based Aspirus Health has announced it will end OB/GYN services at its Ironwood facility in Gogebic County.

IRONWOOD – Aspirus Health is is facing pushback on its plans to end birthing services at its Ironwood hospital Dec. 31, after rejecting $1.2 million from the 2025 Michigan state budget to provide obstetric and gynecological care in that Gogebic County community.

The announcement Sept. 5 follows the Wausau, Wis.-based health system’s closure of its Ontonagon facility in 2023, in addition to ending of OB/GYN services at Aspirus Keweenaw facility in Laurium and laying off almost all the certified nursing assistants at its Iron River clinic.

The nearest facility to Ironwood offering obstetrics and gynecology services — including prenatal care, labor and delivery, postpartum support, and full-scope gynecology — will be Tamarack Health Ashland Medical Center in Ashland, Wis., about 40 miles away.

Ironwood Mayor Kim Corcoran said she is “very, very disappointed” with Aspirus’ actions.

“I’m at a loss,” she said. “I’d jump on the bandwagon to make this stop and not happen, because we need a full-service hospital here. When you take away the birthing, not everybody’s going to be able to get to the hospital, so you’re going to put added pressure on First Responders, and it’s not fair to that group, either.”

Corcoran said the western region, including Ontonagon and Gogebic counties, have suffered economically over the past century.

“In the past hundred years we’ve seen our population decline,” Corcoran said, “and I know that we’ve been struggling to improve our infrastructure and roads, and parks, to bring people in, but to bring people and businesses in, you need to have the services — like having a full-service hospital is one of them. So, when you start taking apart our hospital you kind of take away some of the value of our community.”

The Aspirus release said the hospital will continue to offer high-quality prenatal and postnatal care for local Ironwood families.

“It doesn’t make sense to have pre and post services here without having a birthing center here,” Corcoran said. “I understand that the hospital may not see it as a profit, but I believe it’s a service they need to provide, whether they’re making a profit from it or not. You’re supposed to be nonprofit, so you bite the bullet on this one.”

Corcoran said mothers starting pre-birth services in one medical center, then delivering the baby with another and going back and forth creates difficulties.

In its Sept. 5 news release, Aspirus cites persistent national and regional OB/GYN shortages as a driving factor in the decision. Despite years of aggressive recruiting, Aspirus has been unable to secure a full maternal care team in Ironwood, it states.

Corcoran took issue with the statement. “I think you have to take a look at who your recruiter is,” she said. “I mean, I love where I live, and I don’t think they do enough marketing to attract professionals who want to be here, or offer bonuses.”

A Sept. 5 statement released by the Michigan Nurses Association shared Corcoran’s frustration.

“Nurses are outraged that Aspirus is cutting even more health care for the U.P. and we are extremely worried about women who will now have to drive another 45 minutes to Ashland or another Wisconsin hospital to have their baby – or those who end up in an emergency,” OB nurse Ashley Thompson at Ironwood said in the news release. “Our emergency department nurses are amazing, but they do not have the specialized training to deal with a problematic childbirth, when both lives are at risk. It’s just body blow after body blow by Aspirus, with no regard to the fact that they’re leaving our community without the care they need.”

Thompson added, “Aspirus should not be allowed to keep treating U.P. communities like our lives don’t matter. Nurses want the best for our patients and most of all, we want to keep them safe. This is our community, too, and we won’t be silent in the face of Aspirus’s heartless cuts.”