Marsha wrote:
> Date:    Fri, 9 Jan 2009 12:29:07 -0500
>
> From:    [log in to unmask]
>
> Subject: Massachusetts Has Its First Breastfeeding Law
>
>
>
> ... The Governor of Massachusetts just signed our
>
> first breastfeeding legislation into law. We are no longer one of 3
>
> states without a breastfeeding law. The new law protects breastfeeding
>
> mothers in public and details can be read at the website of the
>
> Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition at www.massbfc.org. It took 8
>
> years of work to make this happen but we hung in there! Why is this so
>
> difficult for some people?
>
>  Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
>
> Weston, MA
>
>
Read the story at
> http://massbfc.org/index.php/2009/governor-signs-breastfeeding-bill/

I wanted to congratulate Marsha and all the others whose hard work  
led to the passage of a law protecting breastfeeding in  
Massachusetts.  We are restarting an effort to pass a similar bill in  
Wisconsin.  Last year's bill had overwhelming support in the  
Wisconsin State Senate but was held up by a single legislator (a  
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, no less) who was head of the State  
Assembly Health Committee and was personally against the bill.  This  
year her party is in the minority and she is no longer chair of the  
committee, so we will work again to get the bill passed.  It is a  
long, slow process, and everything has to fall into place at the  
right times.

Anyway, I was not clear on why the Massachusetts bill (see it at  
http://massbfc.org/pdf/S2438-08.pdf    ) states, "A place of  
religious instruction or worship shall not be subject to this  
section."  Does that mean a religious setting is not subject to the  
protections for breastfeeding, or that it is not subject to the  
penalties (up to $500 fine and attorney fees) for interfering with  
the mother's right to breastfeed? (I agree with Winnie that it might  
be more helpful for us to phrase this as the child's right to  
breastfeed).

Marsha, can you clarify for us the exemption for religious settings?   
It seems to me that if we make that exemption, it suggests that there  
is something unseemly about the act of breastfeeding.

For those interested in following the laws regarding breastfeeding in  
various states and countries, these web sites are helpful:

La Leche League Web Site: Breastfeeding and the Law:
http://www.llli.org/Law/LawUS.html?m=0,1,0

National Conference of State Legislatures web site, with laws on  
breastfeeding for every state: (Has not yet been updated to show the  
Massachusetts law).
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/breast50.htm


Anne Altshuler, RN, MS, IBCLC, LLLL
Madison, wI,, USA

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