Overview
On Monday, January 19, 2026, Salem Health announced an agreement to a merger to acquire Santiam Hospital and Clinics, despite the two systems holding fundamentally different values on abortion. Salem Health currently allows elective abortions up to 23 weeks and 6 days of pregnancy, while Santiam Hospital and Clinics do not provide elective abortions at all. In response, Oregon Right to Life is organizing pro-life advocates, local residents, and concerned stakeholders to oppose the proposed merger and is mobilizing community voices to pressure hospital leadership and public officials to halt the merger in its current form.
Impact
The proposed merger directly impacts the Santiam Canyon and surrounding rural communities, including Stayton, Sublimity, and nearby areas that rely on Santiam Hospital as their primary source of local healthcare.
The effects of this merger extend beyond the canyon into the greater Salem region, where decisions made by Salem Health will shape healthcare access, values, and standards of care for families across Marion and Linn Counties.
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Santiam Hospital in Stayton, Oregon is a provider of high-quality, life-affirming medical services. It is well known as a premier location for families to welcome new life at its birth center.
Santiam Hospital currently maintains a pro-life position that does not allow abortions to be performed at the hospital.
But this status is now at risk.
FAQs
Answer: Santiam Hospital has had an unwritten policy for many decades and a board of directors that was pro-life. Salem Health, on the other hand, has a written policy that allows abortions past 23 weeks of pregnancy. The Salem Health Board of Directors is not pro-life. In the proposed merger, Salem Health’s board will be the governing body of Santiam Hospital, and Santiam Hospital’s board will become an advisory committee. Two members of the Santiam Hospital Board will join the Salem Health Board of Directors, but they will be a significant minority on the board.
Answer: Although the parties agreed to this policy, it does not prevent abortions from taking place in Santiam Hospital after the merger. The reason for this is that providing abortion is within the scope of practice of all doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and certified nurse midwives in the state of Oregon. The scope of practice includes prescribing abortion pills or “medication” abortions. So, once Salem Health takes over Santiam Hospital, when a healthcare professional begins to perform or prescribe abortions at Santiam Hospital, there will be no written policy preventing that individual from doing so. And the Santiam Hospital Board will no longer have the governing authority to prevent this from occurring. Salem Health will not have to impose its abortion policy on Santiam Hospital, the effect of the merger will be to eliminate any abortion policy at Santiam Hospital. And since the only governing body of Santiam Hospital will be the Board of Salem Health, any doctor, physician assistant, nurse practitioner or certified nurse midwife who is employed by Santiam Hospital and wishes to perform an abortion will be allowed to do so.
Answer: Unfortunately, we are now at a stage in the negotiations where there are only two ways to ensure that abortions will not be performed at Santiam Hospital. Either the merger must fail and Santiam Hospital must not become a part of Salem Health or Salem Health must change its abortion policy to prohibit abortions at all of its hospitals and clinics.
Answer: Probably not. Santiam Hospital reported an operating profit of $11 million in 2025 and $8 million in 2024. In contrast Salem Hospital reported over $40 million in operating losses in 2025 and over $50 million in operating losses in 2024. Although Salem Health has more revenue and cash on hand than Santiam Hospital, currently Santiam Hospital is operating more sustainably than Salem Health.
Answer: The Santiam Canyon community is a majority pro-life community. For over 50 years Santiam Hospital has operated in a way that is consistent with the pro-life values of this community. The Santiam Hospital community should not have to be neutral when it comes to the protection of the most innocent human lives simply because the people of Salem have different values when it comes to abortion.