Dear CalMatters reader,

Southwest Healthcare Corona Regional Medical Center will stop providing labor and delivery services by Jan. 30, 2026, the hospital announced.

The hospital cited a drop in births at the facility, and a general decline in birth rates in Riverside County.  Births in the county peaked in August 2007, when 2,784 babies were born, according to state data. In August, there were just 1,891 births.

Chief Nursing Officer Phyllis Snyder was not immediately available to comment.

This is the latest in a series of maternity ward closures across California, as CalMatters reporters Kristen Hwang, Ana B. Ibarra and Erica Yee detailed in their 10-part series on the spread of maternity-care deserts in the state. 

Hemet Global Medical Center’s maternity ward closed in January, and Palo Verde Hospital in Blythe closed in 2023. Across the state, 56 hospitals stopped delivering babies between 2012 and September 2024. 

The high costs for operating labor and delivery wards is one of the reasons for their closures, CalMatters reported in 2023. The legislature has responded to the crisis by requiring a 120-day notice of ward closures. A second bill would have required notice to the state six months before a labor and delivery ward would be closed. Newsom vetoed the bill, saying it was not likely to change a hospital’s decision.

This legislative session, Assemblymember Mia Bonta introduced AB 55. The bill would lower the requirements for birth center licenses if signed, as Hwang reported. It is currently sitting on Newsom’s desk.

In the 2023-2024 session, the legislature passed AB 2490, which would have created a government fund to support healthcare funding in emergency departments. Newsom vetoed it out of budgetary concerns. 

Obstetrician John McHugh, whose Glendale labor and delivery ward closed this year, wrote about the closure for CalMatters:

“Unless we prioritize keeping labor and delivery units open, Californians will continue to sacrifice pieces of their past — and the ability to safely give birth close to home for years and years to come.”

Last April, CalMatters reporter Ryan Sabalow and CBS correspondent Julie Watts reported that Democrats in Sacramento voted “no” less than 1% of the time. Instead, they would simply not vote on bills they disagreed with.

Sabalow revisited the story last week. With the help of CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database, he found that 22 bills died after legislators simply declined to vote. You can see how often your legislator voted here. 

Assemblymember Robert Garcia (D-Rancho Cucamonga) only missed 57 votes, most of which were due to a schedule mix-up, Sabalow reported.

“But I did feel that if you’re … going there to Sacramento, it’s to know the bills and to take a position and, you know, and not be on the sidelines,” Garcia told Sabalow.

Assemblymember Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale), who represents the high desert, missed 383 votes. He told Sabalow he was being polite.

“The way you say ‘no,’ sometimes it matters,” Lackey said. “And sometimes a soft ‘no’ is called for.”

Assemblymember Kate Sanchez (R-Rancho Santa Margarita), who represents Temecula, missed 905 votes. Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes (D-San Bernardino), missed 794 votes while fighting cancer. Sen. Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside), only missed 70 votes. 

Read about your representative at the story here.

Ballots are mailed, and ballot drop-off boxes are deployed. Although the election is set to end Nov. 4, the Inland Empire will begin voting now. To keep yourself informed, read our Proposition 50 voter guide.

The proposed map flips the partisan advantage of five GOP-held House seats in the state and pulls more Democrats into five other swing districts, potentially leaving as few as four Republicans in California’s 52-member congressional delegation.

Read the voter guide here.

While you are here, please sign up for the Inland Empire newsletter and let me know what kinds of stories you’d love to read, and please add my email to your contacts:  inlandempire@calmatters.org

Thanks for reading,