It’s been more than two weeks since Mission Health announced Angel Medical Center would stop delivering babies as of July 14, but the Franklin community still has many unanswered questions and concerns. 

When Macon County residents joined together in 1971 to raise money to buy Angel Hospital and make it a community hospital, the effort was dubbed Operation Heartbeat.

The Affordable Health Care Act got a bit closer to repeal last week as the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that could drastically affect millions across the country and across Western North Carolina.

A difficult decision for Mission Health will now present a difficult decision for expecting mothers in Macon County. 

With Mission’s announcement that labor and deliveries at Angel Medical Center in Franklin will cease by July 14, pregnant women will have to decide whether they want to deliver at Harris Regional Hospital — a Duke LifePoint hospital — 25 minutes away in Sylva or travel an hour and a half to deliver at Mission Hospital in Asheville.

Along with the announcement to stop labor and delivery services at Angel Medical Center, Mission Health also announced plans to build a new, state-of-the-art $43 million hospital for the Franklin community.

With the current expansion of its New Generations Family Birthing Center, Harris Regional Hospital couldn’t be in a better position to handle an anticipated influx of patients for labor and delivery services.

Macon County residents have made a clear statement that they oppose Mission Health’s decision to discontinue labor and delivery services at Angel Medical Center in Franklin. 

After a busy week of rallies around the country, the state and the county, progressives gathered at the Historic Haywood Courthouse April 23 to speak out on healthcare and welcome Asheville Republican Congressman Mark Meadows’ first Democratic challenger. 

• Democrats welcome progressives in symbiotic alliance
• Harnessing the progressive tide
• WNC groups claim Meadows isn’t listening
• A short break with Coffay

Born in Florida but raised in tiny Blue Ridge, Georgia — just a few miles outside of Murphy and not far from where Tennessee borders Georgia and North Carolina — Matt Coffay, 30, has spent a little over a decade in Western North Carolina, after moving to Asheville to attain a degree in philosophy. 

Members of several progressive groups concerned over the moral and monetary implications of Affordable Care Act repeal in rural Western North Carolina say that although their congressman isn’t listening to them now, maybe he’ll hear them in 2018.