Midwife Clinic Sues Georgia After Local Hospitals Block Its Opening

Clinic claims ‘competitors’ veto’ amounts to unconstitutional discrimination

Katie Chubb, executive director of Augusta Birth Center in Georgia in an undated photo with her child, Belamy-John. Courtesy Katie Chubb

A birth center to be staffed by midwives is suing Georgia in federal court for unconstitutionally denying it permission to operate, after three local hospitals expressed opposition to the facility.

At present, there are only three non-hospital birth centers in Georgia, a state with more than 120,000 human births annually, but none are within a 130-mile radius of Augusta, according to the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a national nonprofit public interest law firm that’s representing the center.