On Sat, 2002-08-17 at 13:36, Jake wrote:
> With all due respect to Liz, I have to say that as a lawyer I think that
> it is misleading and potentially harmful to say that public
> breastfeeding is legal unless there is a law saying it is not (none of
> which exist to my knowledge).  The issue is whether a state, or more
> accurately in any given situation an individual police officer, makes
> the judgment that public breastfeeding is "indecent exposure."  My fear
> continues to be that in practice we create women who believe that by
> saying "I have the right to breastfeed everywhere I have the right to
> be" they are immune from arrest and/or prosecution under indecent
> exposure statutes.

Our Massachusetts law is currently stuck in committee, but this is akin
to a question I raised when researching the issue last year, to which I
have never heard an answer.

We pass the laws to ensure that breastfeeding is spelled out clearly as
being protected.  Otherwise it is in danger of being considered "lewd
and lascivious behavior."

How does this relate to sex offender reporting laws?  A man near Boston
got "Megan's Lawed" for urinating off his own porch.  He ended up in the
database as a sex offender.

In the Judiciary Committee our proposed law was amended to only give
clearance to mothers nursing children under 3 years of age.  This leaves
mothers of older toddlers specifically unprotected.

My question was, IF a mother was to be arrested for nursing in public
under lewdness statues, could she be charged as a SEX OFFENDER?  Could
she end up on The List?

Since the stakes are so high now (even an accusation of sexual abuse can
ruin a person's life) is this an angle to take when proposing
legislation?  Has this already been thought of and dismissed?  Am I just
paranoid?

regards,
Beth
Perinatal Educator
P.S.--Did I mention they stripped out the language allowing for fines as
well?
--
  /\/\    Beth Johnson
 / o o\   Cosmic Wonderer
( / ^^\)  Springfield, MA USA
 \ M_M/   "Ruling a country is like cooking a small fish--
           you have to handle it with care."--Lao Tzu


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