RNs demand MedStar Washington Hospital Center reopen postpartum unit amid maternal health crisis in D.C.

Registered nurses will hold a rally and community event on Saturday, Oct. 10 in Washington, D.C. to demand that MedStar Washington Hospital Center reopen its shuttered postpartum unit in the midst of a Black maternal health crisis in the District. Following the rally, the nurses and allies in the community will make their way to the hospital where they will deliver a letter to management calling for the immediate reopening of the unit. 

MedStar Washington Hospital Center registered nurses are represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU).

“As nurses who have seen the devastating effects of a racist health care system that has left too many Black families suffering, we can not stand by silently as MedStar shutters this critical unit for families in D.C.,” said Ingrid Guardado-Cruz, RN. “We are demanding that MedStar reopen this postpartum unit immediately.”

The rally will also highlight the patient care impacts of the federal health care cuts from H.R. 1 on D.C.-area hospitals while demanding hospital management immediately restore vital services. Analysis by NNU finds that all five of D.C.’s hospitals are vulnerable to cuts and closure due to their high dependence on Medicaid and Medicare funding. These hospitals are George Washington University Hospital, Howard University Hospital, Georgetown University Hospital, Sibley Memorial Hospital and MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

Who: MedStar Washington Hospital Center nurses, community allies, and National Nurses United
What: ‘RED ALERT’ rally and community event
When: Oct. 10, 2026 | Free wellness checks beginning 11 a.m.; free food and DJ beginning at 11a.m..; program/rally at 12 p.m.
Where: Wangari Gardens, D.C. at the corner of Kenyon St. NW & Park Place NW
Speakers and guests include: Renelsa Caudill, RN, MedStar Washington Hospital Center; Cathy Kennedy, RN, President of National Nurses United; Sam Epps, President, Maryland State & D.C. AFL-CIO; and Sequnely Gray, D.C. Jobs With Justice

In total, these hospitals provide some 80,000 inpatient visits yearly and stand to lose between $140.5 million and $223.8 million annually when H.R. 1 is fully implemented. More information on the impact of H.R. 1 on D.C. hospitals and patient care is available here.

Despite this, nurses are demanding MedStar management prioritize safe patient care, especially in communities most vulnerable to H.R. 1 funding cuts. According to ProPublica, MedStar Health had more than $1 billion in net assets as of fiscal year ending June 2025. Its CEO, Kenneth A. Samet, received compensation of more than $7 million.

Furthermore, MedStar Health is spending large amounts of money in an aggressive union busting campaign at MedStar Franklin Square Hospital in Baltimore, Md., where nurses are unionizing to protect patients and their community. MedStar management is interrogating nurses about union support, surveilling nurses, and using security to interfere with nurses speaking with coworkers. Based on previous contracts reported to the U.S. Department of Labor, NNU estimates MedStar Health is spending an estimated $28,000 to $40,000 a week on these union busting efforts. Nurses say it is disgraceful that money that should be spent on patient care is going to pay for private consultants to attempt to silence nurses as they advocate for safe patient care.

Nurses say it is unconscionable that MedStar Washington Hospital Center would shutter a postpartum unit limiting access to birthing options at a time when more resources are needed for families. Nurses note that Black women account for 84 percent of pregnancy-related deaths in the District, although they account for only 31 percent of births, according to city data. MedStar Washington Hospital Center plays a vital role in providing care in D.C., delivering a third of the babies born in the District.

“As we see the health care landscape under attack in D.C., we must fight for the most vulnerable in our community, the newborn babies and their families,” said Averie Foster, RN “Since we have had the postpartum unit closed in July, we have had to put our hospital on labor and delivery diversion 22 times. This means laboring patients are traveling further for care which puts them and their babies at risk for poorer outcomes.”

On top of potential service cuts and closures at area hospitals, D.C. patients are expected to face increasing challenges to accessing care with the expiration of ACA subsidies on top of the Medicaid and Medicare cuts. More than 285,000 D.C. residents rely on Medicaid. Some 95,000 of these individuals are at risk of losing their Medicaid when H.R.1 is fully implemented. 

Furthermore, many D.C. residents will be hit with a double punch as H.R. 1 is slated to cut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $187 billion over the next ten years. Families are already feeling the effects: since H.R. 1’s implementation, nearly 10,000 individuals in the D.C. have lost access to SNAP. Once fully implemented, estimates show up to 230,000 families will lose some SNAP benefits, with 26,000 families with children and 33,000 working families losing $25 or more monthly.

More than one in three Black residents of D.C. belong to a household participating in SNAP, compared to 1 in 65 white residents. Nearly half of Black D.C. residents are enrolled in Medicaid, compared to 1 in 37 white residents. Residents in Ward 7 and 8, two historically marginalized wards, will face the greatest harm from H.R. 1. 

More information on the impact of H.R. 1 on D.C. hospitals and patient care is available here.

‘RED ALERT’ tour offers the union nurses’ vision for how to make America healthy:

The Oct. 10 rally and event in D.C. is part of National Nurses United’s RED ALERT bus tour, which is travelling across the country to highlight the drastic reduction in the quantity and quality of health care services as a result of H.R. 1 – and to demand hospital executives and management join nurses in putting patient care over profits. 

H.R. 1 is the 2025 budget bill, pushed through by Republicans and President Trump, that cut more than $1 trillion in Medicaid and Medicare funding to give billionaires tax breaks, militarize immigration enforcement, and fund endless wars abroad. Nurses have condemned these cuts to health care funding and denounced its funnelling into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), which have unleashed a deadly, illegal, and cruel terror campaign across the country. NNU is calling for ICE to be abolished.

Union nurses are taking their alternative Vision for a Healthy Society directly to the patients and working-class communities they serve, calling on community members to help them organize and advocate to protect patients, not profits. To date, RED ALERT has visited communities in Glendale, Oceanside, Alameda, and Oroville in Calif.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Kalamazoo and Ironwood in Michigan; Chicago, Ill.; and Bangor, Maine.  

“The billionaire class and their Republican puppets are gutting public health protections to make themselves richer and militarize our neighborhoods, with zero regard for working people and families struggling to survive,” said NNU President Jamie Brown, RN. “Nurses refuse their deadly agenda. We’re taking the wheel and bringing our vision for a healthy society directly to patients and communities who will bear the brunt of Republican policies. We invite everyone who has felt abandoned by the political system to join us and build real working-class solidarity.”

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with nearly 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.