The Social Medicine Portal

The ACLU, the Madonna & Breastfeeding in New York

Legal in New York State since 1984

Several years ago, a young mother of our acquaintance was visiting the Cloisters, the gorgeous annex of the Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated to the Medieval period and located at the northern tip of Manhattan.  She sat down in the garden (shown at this link) to breastfeed her son.  She was soon approached by a very serious-appearing guard wearing a blue blazer who informed her that breastfeeding was not allowed in public.  She protested that they were surrounded by images of Madonnas feeding Christ.  She offered to cover over the baby’s head.  But to no avail.  The guard told her that rules were rules.

Well, the guard was wrong.

In 2006, the New York Civil Liberties Union (the New York affiliate of the ACLU) threatened  to sue Toys ‘R Us (mentioned in an earlier breastfeeding posting) for prohibiting a mother from breastfeeding in a store. Donna Lieberman, the New York Civil Liberties Union executive director noted:“It’s ironic that a store that caters to children would prohibit a mother from doing what is best for her child.  One would think that Toys “R” Us would have moved past the puritanical notions that this incident reflects.” Toys ‘R Us responded that it simply asked the mother to go into one of the approved breastfeeding rooms of the store.

However, the NYCLU had lobbied successfully for a 1984 New York State law that – in the words of La Leche League – “exempted the breastfeeding of infants from their criminal statutes.” (Think of it!)  The New York State law states that mothers have the right to breastfeed in any public place they have a right to be and need not go into special breast-feeding rooms.  [The specifics of this law and a review of US breastfeeding legislation can be found on the La Leche League website. ]

The NYCLU has now produced materials for women outlining their rights with respect to breastfeeding. These rights cover being in the hospital,  in pubic and at work.  Here is their summary:

AT THE HOSPITAL
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT:

• To be with your baby at any time after you give birth.
• To start breastfeeding, so long as it’s safe for you and your baby.
• To get information about breastfeeding so that you can decide what you want to do.
• To have someone show you how to feed your baby.
• To get advice about the health benefits of breast milk for your baby, how to eat and stay healthy while you are breastfeeding, common problems nursing moms face, and how to collect and store your breast milk.
• To get information about how to feed your baby with formula if you can’t breastfeed or decide not to.

IN PUBLIC
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT:

• To breastfeed your baby in any public or private place where you have a right to be.
• This includes stores, day care centers, doctors’ offices, restaurants, parks, movie theaters and many other places.
• No one can tell you to leave any of these places because you are breastfeeding, and no one can tell you to breastfeed in a bathroom, a basement or a private room.

AT WORK
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT:

• To pump breast milk for three years after you give birth.
• To use your paid break or meal time, or take reasonable unpaid break times, to pump breast milk.
• To ask for a private place to pump breast milk close to where you work. Your employer must try to find you one.
• Your employer cannot discriminate against you for choosing to breastfeed your baby or for pumping milk at work.

Interested women can order a breast-feeding rights card at this link.

Commentary

This is an wonderful example of health activism on the part of lawyers.  It grows out of the Reproductive Rights Project of the NYCLU. But clearly we have a long way to go before breastfeeding is seen as the norm and bottle feeding the exception.  What would Mary have said!

Correction: An earlier version of this posting incorrectly identified the activities described herein as originating from the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project.  In fact, the initiatives described in this post come from the Reproductive Rights Project of the the New York Civil Liberties Union, the local affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. We apologize for any confusion.

Posted by Matt Anderson, MD