Court throws out $1.4 million verdict against Marietta abortion clinic

GEORGIA NEWS | 18 hours ago

By Bill Rankin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Georgia Court of Appeals has thrown out a $1.4 million verdict against a Marietta abortion clinic whose office park claimed the clinic’s protesters were an unacceptable nuisance. ... If the court ruled otherwise, the clinic could not operate anywhere, said the opinion, issued Monday. It also would “expose a broad array of legal businesses and institutions to nuisance liability due to the fact that some find them controversial and some will protest their very existence.”

The unanimous decision is a “tremendous relief” to Dr. Daniel McBrayer Sr., who had operated his Alpha OBGYN Group medical practice in the Governors Ridge Office Park since the 1990s, said Michael Eber, one of the doctor’s lawyers. The Marietta clinic has since closed, he said.

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McBrayer’s practice is likely to upset some members of the community wherever it is located, said the opinion, written by Judge Ken Hodges. ... Hodges noted that both legal and illegal demonstrators have caused disruptions at “a multitude of businesses and institutions, such as gun shops, fur retailers, Chick-fil-A restaurants, police departments, synagogues, statehouses, Black churches, adult entertainment establishments and mosques, to name a few.”

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McBrayer’s appeal was supported in legal briefs by a number of organizations. Among them: the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, the Firearms Policy Coalition, the National Abortion Federation and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

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