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4/8/2026
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Media Advisory: Rally scheduled tomorrow in support of Newport birthing center
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STATE HOUSE –Rep. Lauren H. Carson will welcome a coalition of supporters of Newport’s Noreen Stonor Drexel Birthing Center to the State House Thursday for a rally and lobbying day in support of the birthing center’s future.
The rally, which will be held tomorrow, Thursday, April 9, at 3 p.m. in Room 135 on the first floor of the State House, will highlight the experiences of mothers who have relied on the birthing center and call for passage of Representative Carson’s bills to ensure a strong future for the birthing center and maternal health on Aquidneck Island and statewide. Those bills are scheduled for hearings before the House Health and Human Services Committee following the House session tomorrow in Room 101 on the first floor of the State House.
The rally is scheduled to feature Representative Carson (D-Dist. 75, Newport); Sen. Louis P. DiPalma (D-Dist. 12, Middletown, Little Compton, Newport, Tiverton); Newport City Councilor Xay Khamsyvoravong; Cassie Voll of Moms over Margins; Katie Hellendrung, a Middletown mother who has given birth to five children at the birthing center; and Adriana Chartier, a registered nurse at Women & Infants Hospital and a member of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1199 New England.
The media is welcome to attend.
After considering a plan last summer to shutter the Stonor Drexel Birthing Center — the only birthing center on Aquidneck Island — Brown University Health first announced it would keep it open for another year while considering its future, then on Friday announced that it planned to keep the birthing center open, but needs an additional $4.9 million annually to sustain it.
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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