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.
Here is Pennsylvania, I get calls from women who have been tossed out of
public spaces for public breastfeeding. I get these calls with
frightening regularity. Since I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, my
first question is always whether the public space was within city
limits. I ask this because the city of Philadelphia has a wonderful
ordinance forbidding a wide variety of harassing conduct for public
breastfeeding and providing for sanction for violating the ordinance.
Outside of the city, there is nothing to be done unless the mom had had
the knowledge and inclination to take a stand, challenge the offender to
get a cop, and get ready to be a test case. Well, needless to say, this
never happens. And then if this were to happen, who would litigate this
test case?
And yes, I know there is a federal case finding a right to breastfeed.
It is a Circuit Court case, not a US Supreme Court case, meaning it is
binding only within the Circuit in which it was decided. Not my
Circuit. And again, you need a client and a test case to actually
expect to alter conduct in the community.
All of the above is to make the point that, again with respect to Liz,
there is another approach to take. That approach is to educate women on
the importance of legislation clarifying that breastfeeding related
conduct is not "indecent exposure" under the state statute and
legislation providing for sanctions against harassment of
breastfeeding. And while we are at it, how about working toward all
states passing legislation like Maine's statute that requires
considering whether a child is breastfeeding in custody determinations
(most of my many legal helping calls are about custody).
Thanks for listening.
Jake, ducking the anticipated flames
--
Jake Aryeh Marcus: IBCLC2B; freelance writer and editor; lawyer;
homeschooling work-at-home mom to Luca (7/94), Nicholas (5/97), & Aidan
(3/00). mailto:[log in to unmask]
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