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Attorneys for a pregnant woman who has sued MaineHealth to try to prevent Lincoln Hospital’s birthing center from closing filed an amended complaint Monday, arguing that the healthcare system is violating the Affordable Care Act.

Corrinna Stum, of Newcastle, who is due to give birth in January, filed the lawsuit in Lincoln County Superior Court in Wiscasset on Aug. 5, the day before the MaineHealth Board of Trustees voted to shutter the Damariscotta hospital’s birthing center in December.

On Monday, Stum filed an amended complaint and requested a permanent injunction that would stop the closure. The lawsuit also asks the court to grant a restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the birthing center from closing while the lawsuit is pending.

Stum’s attorney, Joe Baldacci, said in an interview Monday that MaineHealth violated the ACA by not following the law’s procedures when deciding to close its maternity ward.

“The community got short-shrifted when it comes to labor and delivery services,” Baldacci said. “There is no legitimate health reason to do this.”

If Lincoln Hospital’s maternity ward closes, the closest birthing centers to Damariscotta — MaineHealth’s Pen Bay Hospital in Rockport and Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick — are 35- to 45-minute drives away, longer during summer tourist season or in winter weather.

MaineHealth officials have said low birth volumes and difficulties in hiring obstetricians and midwives led to the decision to close the Lincoln Hospital birthing center.

A grassroots group, the Miles Delivers Action Coalition, launched a campaign last spring in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade MaineHealth to maintain labor and delivery services. Stum had joined the coalition in the spring, although the coalition is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Monday’s court filing accuses MaineHealth of violating the ACA by failing to “identify or adequately analyze continued maternity and labor and delivery services, the service gap created by closure, emergency consequences, transportation burdens, regional capacity, or resulting public costs” in its Community Health Needs Assessment. The ACA requires hospitals to conduct the assessment.

The public meetings and internal deliberations “did not satisfy” the ACA requirements, according to the lawsuit.

The Lincoln Hospital birthing center would be the 12th to close in Maine since 2015. Maine has the second-worst rate of rural maternity ward closures in the nation, with 37% shuttering since 2020, according to the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform.

Stum has said Lincoln Hospital is a 7-mile drive from her home in Newcastle. The next-closest place for Stum to give birth, Mid Coast Hospital, would be 40 minutes away, possibly longer in winter driving conditions.

MaineHealth spokesperson John Porter said in a written statement Tuesday that “we are reviewing the amended complaint and will respond to the legal claims through the appropriate court process.”

Earlier this month, MaineHealth filed a motion to dismiss Stum’s lawsuit, arguing it “would set a dangerous precedent, permitting any community member to ask a court to opine on public policy and judicially override a private organization’s operational decisions whenever those decisions impact a community. The law does not permit that result.”

Baldacci, who is also a Democratic state senator, said MaineHealth should have at least delayed a decision by six months to see what a new governor and Legislature might do to help keep birthing centers from closing.

All three major candidates for governor — Democrat Hannah Pingree, Republican Bobby Charles and independent Rick Bennett — had urged MaineHealth to not shutter labor and delivery at Lincoln Hospital.