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MINNEAPOLIMEDIA NEWS | Minnesota Launches Rural Maternity-Care Project as Sanford Announces Luverne Delivery Closure
The statewide effort will examine access gaps and develop recommendations for 2027, while another community prepares to lose routine inpatient childbirth services.
SAINT PAUL, MN (October 29, 2026). Minnesota officials announced a new effort to strengthen rural maternity care Wednesday, the same day Sanford Health disclosed plans to discontinue inpatient labor, delivery and newborn care in Luverne next April.
The parallel announcements illustrate the challenge facing rural health systems: keeping childbirth services within reach while maintaining the staffing and clinical experience needed to provide them safely.
Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office will facilitate the Strengthening Rural Maternal Healthcare in Minnesota project. It will map existing services, examine access to prenatal, childbirth and postpartum care, and propose collaborative responses.
The attorney general’s office estimates that more than 700,000 Minnesotans live in counties without labor and delivery services. It also reports that approximately 67,000 women of childbearing age live more than a half-hour from a delivery unit.
A planning effort with a 2027 deadline
Strategic facilitator Lois Quam will convene an initial meeting before the end of 2026 to establish the project’s scope and timetable. Public town halls are anticipated, with recommendations expected in 2027.
The work is the first focus area of the broader Rural Healthcare Stability Initiative, supported by Sanford’s $15 million commitment. The Minneapolis Foundation will administer that initiative’s charitable fund. The announcement does not allocate the entire commitment to maternity care or promise particular delivery-unit openings.
What will change in Luverne
MPR News reported that Sanford’s Luverne facility will end routine inpatient delivery and newborn services in April 2027. Prenatal care, postpartum care and emergency labor and delivery will continue.
Sanford said deliveries there have fallen more than 40% over a decade, averaging fewer than five births monthly. The health system cited the difficulty of maintaining specialized clinical skills at that volume.
Patients seeking routine inpatient childbirth care will need to travel to another facility, including options in Worthington or Sioux Falls, South Dakota. MPR reported those destinations are approximately 30 miles away.
The statewide project will therefore confront competing concerns already affecting families: the burdens of longer travel and the safety requirements of facilities handling relatively few births. Its recommendations will come as Luverne’s transition approaches.
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