The Colorado Sun reports that a group of direct-entry midwives is suing Colorado regulators, alleging DORA’s Division of Professions and Occupations is making it harder for them to practice safely and limiting families’ access to community birth care. The lawsuit alleges bias and sex-based discrimination, and the state declined comment on pending litigation. Those are allegations, not verdicts, but they are serious enough that DORA should have to answer them plainly.
The story centers on a sharp Colorado question: when more than one-third of Colorado counties are maternity-care deserts, and nearly half of rural women live more than 30 minutes from a birthing hospital, why is the state making it harder for trained providers to serve families? Denver bureaucrats love writing rules like everyone lives five minutes from Anschutz. Colorado does not work that way. Weld County sure as hell does not.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Colorado has more than 550 licensed midwives, but only just over 100 are direct-entry midwives with active licenses. Small group, big rural relevance.
- Direct-entry midwives are regulated by one program director, not a board. Colorado is reportedly the only state using that model. Because apparently one-person bureaucracy is innovation now.
- The lawsuit alleges regulators disregard evidence favorable to midwives and limit their ability to practice. Alleged, yes. Worth serious scrutiny, absolutely.
- Complaints against direct-entry midwives reportedly stay open about 500 days on average, twice as long as other queried professions. That is not oversight. That is regulatory purgatory.
- Mothers, babies, and rural families are the point. Not turf wars. Not institutional ego. Not Denver pretending every county has hospital access on demand.
My Bottom Line
This is a classic Colorado regulator story: the state says it is protecting safety, while the people doing the work say the rules are making care harder to provide safely.
The lawsuit needs to prove its claims. DORA deserves the chance to respond. But the broader question is fair right now: are these rules about patient safety, or are they about institutional turf protection dressed up in bureaucratic khakis?
Nobody should romanticize childbirth. It is beautiful, yes. It can also turn dangerous fast. But that is exactly why rural families need more safe options, not fewer. If hospitals are closing labor and delivery units, if maternity-care deserts already exist, and if trained midwives are one of the few providers willing to serve hard-to-reach communities, then regulation should improve safety without strangling access.
Public safety is not measured by how many professionals a state can scare out of practice. It is measured by whether families can get competent care when and where they need it.
So let the lawsuit proceed. Let the evidence come out. But DORA should answer the adult questions now: why this model, why these timelines, why this level of discretion, and why should rural Colorado trust a system that the providers themselves say is broken?
Source: The Colorado Sun
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