by Martin Green

The closing of the Copley Hospital Birthing Center is a local tragedy. For a generation, the excellent care provided by its staff has been unsurpassed.

The Birthing Center officially closed its doors on November 1st. It’s a sad day because the ramifications of this closure are nearly incalculable in terms of the difficulties it will place on pregnant moms and families, not only geographically, but in terms of losing the kind of extraordinary and compassionate care we have all come to so greatly appreciate from the staff of the Copley Hospital Birthing Center. The benefit this center has been to our community, Lamoille County, and surrounding areas cannot be overstated.

All that to say, we lament what appears to be the apparent end of an era of the tremendous blessings and benefits we have received through the Birthing Center. But is there another solution? I have considered one which would be well worth exploring.

The News & Citizen’s front page story of 10/30/25, reporting on the closure of the Birthing Center, mentions a $766K stabilization grant program offered by the Agency of Human Services for which the hospital had applied, but for which it was rejected. Buried in the middle of this account, it reports that “Planned Parenthood of Northern New England asked the state for $4.9 million through the program but was awarded just $1600.”

This report omits so much relevant information as to make it practically erroneous. It portrays Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNE) as a poor beggar asking for a filet mignon dinner, but given only a morsel of stale bread. But nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, Vermont provides between $800K and $1million dollars to PPNE, which includes significant funds through the state’s Title X Family Planning grant and other state revenues. In its fiscal year ending June 2023, PPNE received approximately $3 million in total federal and state funds and grants, with Vermont (translation: you and I who pay taxes) being its sole state funding source. For at least the next year, the federal government has defunded Planned Parenthood, so PPNE must rely even more heavily on Vermont taxpayer dollars.

Why is Planned Parenthood, the majority of whose services are ostensibly to terminate pregnancies and discourage the birth of babies and growth of families, being awarded great sums of taxpayer dollars, while the Copley Birthing Center, whose sole purpose is to provide the safest, most welcoming environment for babies to be born and for families to grow and thrive, is being rejected? It seems to defy logic, doesn’t it?

There is an elephant in the room. Part of the reason cited for closing the Birthing Center is the steady decline in the Lamoille County birthrate over the past two decades. What has driven this decline? Let’s look at one statistic in particular. The abortion rate in Vermont in 2020 was between 22-24%, which equates to around 1200 abortions per year. This percentage is roughly the same in Lamoille County. For every four babies born, the fifth one is missing. In fact, the difference between the number of deaths and the number of births is almost exactly the same as the number of babies who were aborted!

With a legislature that fought tooth and nail to enshrine abortion on demand into our state’s constitution under the guise of “reproductive liberty,” and a culture which conflates terminating pregnancies with “women’s health care,” is it any wonder that the birthrate has declined? 

Unfortunately, Planned Parenthood’s aggressive efforts to promulgate its view of sex education to increasingly younger children ultimately translates, by the time these children reach reproductive age, to more abortions. More abortions means more money for Planned Parenthood, which has worked intensively to get us to buy into an ethos of casual sex with no responsibility, and a contraceptive culture antithetical to marriage, commitment, families, and children. The result has been more abortions and less children. 

In fact, Planned Parenthood committed a record high 402,230 abortions nationally in 2022-2023. Who can even conceive of such staggering numbers of innocent, defenseless preborn babies being intentionally destroyed while we are fighting to keep a desperately needed birthing center open? Our tax dollars are helping to promote this kind of culture of death, all while we are being denied grants and funding to sustain our Birthing Center which welcomes new lives.

Governor Scott, Representative Yacovone, all Lamoille County representatives, and all state representatives, I call upon and implore you to use whatever political or legislative influence you have to not only work to shut down all state taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, but to find creative solutions to reallocate this money towards funding and reopening the Copley Hospital Birthing Center.

Author is a Morrisville resident.