A woman aligned with a grassroots group attempting to keep the birthing center at Lincoln Hospital from closing has filed a lawsuit against MaineHealth seeking to keep its board from voting on the issue this week.

Corrinna Stum, who is pregnant and due to give birth in January, filed the lawsuit in Lincoln County Superior Court on Wednesday.

The lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction that would stop the MaineHealth board of trustees from voting at its meeting on Thursday, and also a permanent injunction to prevent MaineHealth from closing the birthing center.

If the board votes to shutter the maternity ward, it could close in December, hospital officials have said. Joe Baldacci, one of Stum’s attorneys, said in an interview Wednesday that if such a vote happens before a court hearing can occur, the lawsuit could still halt its closure.

MaineHealth “may think Thursday’s vote would be a final action, but we still have legal tools,” Baldacci said.

A hearing on the lawsuit had not been scheduled by late Wednesday afternoon, Baldacci said.

“This is a very serious lawsuit MaineHealth will have to deal with for a while, if they aren’t willing to at least delay closure for a significant amount of time,” Baldacci said.

MaineHealth officials had not responded to questions from the Portland Press Herald by late afternoon Wednesday.

Stum said she joined the grassroots group Miles Delivers Action Coalition — Lincoln Hospital was formerly named Miles — in June, after she found out she was pregnant with her second child. The coalition has held rallies, garnered support from Gov. Janet Mills and other politicians, and made detailed suggestions on how the maternity ward could be saved.

“The community feedback has been a resounding ‘don’t close this’ and that message has seemed to fall on deaf ears with MaineHealth,” Stum said in an interview Wednesday.

Eleven birthing centers have closed in Maine since 2015, mostly in rural areas, as the state contends with low birth volumes and healthcare workforce shortages.

The lawsuit claims that MaineHealth violated state law in its deliberations on whether to close labor and delivery, including having “failed to adequately investigate reasonable alternatives, fully consider available evidence, and faithfully discharge those duties.”

The lawsuit alleges that MaineHealth failed to follow “licensing, emergency planning, and patient protection requirements associated with terminating inpatient maternity services.”

Stum said Lincoln Hospital is a 7-mile drive from her home in Newcastle and that the next closest place to give birth, MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, is a 40-minute drive away.

“That would be a terrifying drive in January,” Stum said. If the birthing center closes, it would be a disincentive for her family to have more children, she said.

Stum said the birthing center needs to stay open for the safety of patients and the community’s well-being.

“Generations of families have had their babies here,” Stum said. “I’m not looking for a temporary solution. We don’t want a staple of our community taken away from us.”

MaineHealth officials have said that low birth volumes and difficulties in hiring obstetricians and midwives have led them to consider closing the Lincoln Hospital birthing center.