State finds Holyoke Medical Center’s birthing services ‘necessary’ for area

But local residents and health care advocates are still demanding that their voices be heard, with some calling for Holyoke Medical Center to reverse course and keep the Birthing Center open.

A local group known as the Coalition for Birthing Care Access is holding a demonstration Thursday at 3 p.m. on the corner of Beech and Northampton streets in Holyoke to call on the hospital to stop the closure of the Birthing Center. The coalition includes a partnership between Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Nurses Association and Massachusetts Jobs With Justice.

Holyoke Medical Center. (Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette)