More than 1,400 have signed nurses’ petition to keep their labor and delivery unit open.

Tonight, nurses from Houlton Regional Hospital’s (HRH) Labor, Delivery, Recovery, and Postpartum (LDRP) unit were again joined by scores of community members for a candlelight vigil in a protest against the proposed closure of their hospital’s LDRP department. The vigil was held at River Front Park in Houlton and was followed by a march to Houlton Regional Hospital.

This protest follows a standing-room only town hall meeting on April 9, which came just after the closure was announced by HRH CEO Gina Brown. Since the town hall meeting, more than 1,500 people have signed a petition calling for the closure to be cancelled and more transparency in the hospital’s decisions.

“Our community no longer trusts the hospital’s administration or its board of trustees,” said Jayme Hovey, a nurse in HRH’s LDRP unit. “They made this decision without any LDRP nurse or provider input. This is a reckless and dangerous decision. We believe that vulnerable mothers and babies will die as a result.”

“We don’t have much time, but we are not giving up,” said Misty Wing, another nurse in the LDRP department. “This fight is too important, and it has too many lives in the balance. While our hospital’s administration and board are abandoning local families, we will fight until the end.”

Nurses believe that this decision violates state requirements to provide 120 days' notice before closing a hospital unit or department.

The news of this closure comes just after Mount Desert Island Hospital announced the closure of its own obstetrics unit, effective July 1, 2025, amidst a rash of several other maternal care departments closing across the state of Maine in recent years.

Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), represents 4,000 nurses and caregivers from Portland to Fort Kent and nearly 70 nurses at Houlton Regional Hospital.

Maine State Nurses Association is part of National Nurses Organizing Committee, representing 4,000 nurses and other caregivers from Portland to Fort Kent. NNOC is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest and fastest-growing labor union of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide.