The Law
While browsing about the Blue Nowhere this weekend, I found the National Conference of State Legislatures site that provides a concise summary of state laws regarding breastfeeding. Awesome.
I mentioned it before, but what is particularly disturbing about many of these recent cases where mothers are being to leave public places while breastfeeding is that they are in states that have laws to protect them! Why are mothers still being asked to leave? Is there something a mother can do? Therefore, I took it upon myself to call my local police department to discuss the best approach for dealing with a situation where a mother is illegally asked to leave a public place while nursing her child. Kansas law is pretty specific - it allows a woman to breastfeed in “any place she has a right to be.” The police officer was very helpful and said the obvious - many folks are simply not aware of what the law allows. His recommendation was to carry a copy of the statute. If I were ever asked to leave a place where I “have a right to be”, he recommended presenting a copy of the statute to the person. I do have a convenient card for this purpose, so it was reassuring to know that I am on the right track. It’s a shame that it would come down to this, but I think his advice was correct. Furthermore, if this ever happens to me and if the person asking me to leave persists even after I show him/her the card, I guess I will then politely invite them to call the police.
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May 7th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
That’s pretty cool that the police person was able to help you out and was willing to discuss it with you. Makes me curious about Ohio and if there is a card to print out. Looks like I’ll be doing some digging myself.
May 7th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Sarah,
The card I referred to is a card that was given to me at a breastfeeding support group meeting - I believe it was something a local LLL chapter had put together as a courtesy. However, I think if you just made a copy of the statute that Ohio has (and they do have one), that would suffice. The statutes are brief, the printout would not be large and you would have something specific in which to refer.
May 7th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
I think that unfortunately many people just think it’s obscene, and sure, there are some women who don’t care who sees their bodies, but I think that most women try to be discrete about it and aren’t out to flash the entire population. I know that if I had been able to make breastfeeding work with my son, I wouldn’t have thought twice about breastfeeding in public. It’s a shame that people would cause such a scene about something so natural. It used to be the only way women could provide food for their babies - now they see it as something to be ashamed of. *sigh* Hopefully over time things will come full circle and it will become acceptable again.