Maine GOP hopeful vying for Trump endorsement previously ran birthing clinics catering to migrant women

Jonathan Bush, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Maine who has been vying for President Donald Trump's endorsement ahead of this week's June 9 primary, previously ran a network of birthing clinics in the San Diego County area that often catered to migrant women, a Fox News Digital review found.

"Here we were, the largest obstetric practice in San Diego County and our business was mostly Medi-Cal, the state welfare program, and migrant workers. We needed their business and even appealed to them with Spanish-language ads on local TV," Bush, who was referring to Athena Women's Health, commonly known at the time as Athena Health, recounted in Where Does it Hurt? — a 2014 book he co-authored.

At its height, Athena Health helped give birth to thousands of children, according to Bush, who opened a network of birthing clinics with his business partner, Todd Park, who would go on to serve years later as the chief technology officer during the Obama administration.

"We actually owned a birth center. And at the height, we were doing 3,000 babies a year," Bush told the audience on the Venture Fizz Podcast in 2022. "If you multiplied our monthly run rate, maybe 3,300. So really big, prosperous, not prosperous. A lot of low-income families with very low couldn't, not on Medicaid, had to pay cash, migrant laborers, all kinds of people."

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Bush’s resurfaced comments about his business raise questions about whether he had knowingly helped women, who may not have been American citizens, secure U.S. citizenship for their children through birthright citizenship and come as he wages a campaign to become the Republican nominee for governor in Maine.

When pressed by Fox New Digital with questions about Athena's work with immigrants, the Bush campaign pushed back, arguing that Athenahealth had never offered birthing services and that, as a healthcare software company, it would have been illegal to provide them.

"To distract from his flailing campaign, 25-year DC lobbyist Bobby Charles continues to lie about my record of creating hundreds of Maine jobs," Bush said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Ironically, Lobby Charles – who lied about his military service – lobbied for a liberal pro-illegal immigrant, pro-gun control, pro-birthright citizenship California Democrat Attorney General. Here's the truth without the Lobbyist Lies: athenahealth/Athena Women's Health provided software, billing, and management services to 116,000 American doctors."

"They have never provided any medical services of any kind. And as I've said consistently, I agree with President Trump — illegal immigrants should be deported," Bush, a first cousin to former President George W. Bush, added.

While Bush's statement about Athenahealth not providing medical services with birthing clinics is accurate, the failed venture, Athena Health, that Bush was initially involved with for less than 2 years was operating birthing clinics.

"Our new company started out with twelve clinics scattered through San Diego County," Bush said in his 2014 book, referring to Athena Health. "The six doctors and thirty-five midwives were doing two thousand births a year. The midwives were all Latinas. They were warm and friendly and supportive, just what our business plan called for."

A 2005 profile piece also reveals the early days of their main birthing clinic, where they were "listening to the urgent and beautiful sounds of a baby’s first gulps of air from the birthing room nearby."

"Jonathan Bush and Todd Park sat in their offices in a San Diego birthing clinic in 1997, listening to the urgent and beautiful sounds of a baby’s first gulps of air from the birthing room nearby. The cries were music for the two fresh-faced former Booz Allen Hamilton health-care consultants, 28 and 24, respectively, who had decided they’d learned enough to run a physician’s clinic better and more efficiently than the doctors could," the article reads.

The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity also describes Bush's work with Athena as a "birthing clinic in San Diego."

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It’s unclear what portion of his clients were migrant women. But from his own comments, the volume appears to have been a significant volume of business.

"‘All migrants all the time.’ It was a laugh line for us, but not a very funny one. This was not the thriving business we envisioned. We were hemorrhaging money," Bush said in his book.

"A lot of low-income families had to pay cash — migrant laborers, all kinds of people," he continued.

Bush, who has been a healthcare technology entrepreneur for decades and is best known for co-founding Athenahealth, a cloud-based software and services company marketed to medical practices, has touted this experience on the campaign trail.

"I’ve made my career disrupting the status quo, creating jobs and helping people achieve their American dream," Bush, who announced his candidacy for governor in October, said in an announcement video.

During his race, he has positioned himself as a Maine-first candidate, promising to make Maine more of a destination state for businesses and investors by cutting taxes, auditing local government, and increasing energy supplies by tapping into natural gas reserves.

While he has distanced himself from the MAGA wing of the Republican Party on some issues, he recently told Fox News that "everybody wants endorsements, a giant endorsement like Donald Trump would be phenomenal. He's held off. This is a purple state…we'd love one."

Although he has leaned heavily on his business experience to make his pitch to voters, his top GOP opponent, Bobby Charles, believes his birthing clinics and the pitch to migrant women goes against the pro-America, pro-Maine message he’s pitching now.

"It is not surprising to hear Bush now may also have been involved in facilitating illegal immigration. The contrast couldn’t be clearer. I am a pro-Trump conservative who will remove illegals out of the state and ban sharia law. Jonathan ‘Never Trump,' Bush simply can’t be trusted to do what most Mainers want," Charles said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

The Bush campaign strongly pushed back against Charles' characterization that Bush facilitated illegal immigration or birthright citizenship.

According to the National Immigration Law Center, undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in insurance programs, prompting them to search out services where they can find lower costs and payment flexibility.

According to Bush, as Athena continued to take on a higher volume of those clients, the business’s stability weakened.

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"Our popularity worked against us… Pretty soon, most of our remaining clients were indigent. They were either on Medicaid or they had no insurance at all and paid in cash or promised to pay in cash," Bush wrote in his book.

"I’m probably not giving away anything to tell you that it floundered, and then failed," he continued.

Maine holds its primary election for governor on Tuesday, June 9.