I see it just about every other weekend when I usher at Sunday mass at my church. It usually takes place in the back of church, in a corner, or inside a doorway on the steps leading up to the organ/choir loft. When I see it happening, I make nothing of it, keeping quiet, turning, and walking away.
One of the last things I ever want to do is become confrontational about breast-feeding. You get no argument from me that breast-feeding is healthy and natural.
The issue is about to get more attention in Wisconsin. State Senator Fred Risser (D-Madison) is hunting around the state Capitol, searching for legislators to co-sponsor legislation on breast-feeding in public he plans to introduce. The normal process in the Legislature when a lawmaker is pushing a bill and wants support from other elected officials is to send out an e-mail asking for backing. Risser has done that, telling colleagues:
Under current law, there are various prohibitions against lewd behavior and sexual gratification in public. These prohibitions, however, do not apply to a mother breastfeeding her child. While state law does not classify breastfeeding as a “lewd behavior”, many mothers statewide are the subject of harassment daily because they choose to nurse their child in a restaurant, coffee shop, or shopping mall.
(Risser’s bill) would help to create greater public awareness of breastfeeding by allowing a mother to breastfeed in any public or private location where she is otherwise authorized to be. Additionally, this bill would prohibit any person from interfering with the right of a mother to breast feed her child. Any person who interferes with this right would be subject to a forfeiture of not more than $200.I want to be very clear. I do not oppose breast-feeding. At my church, every single instance of breast-feeding I’ve experienced was done discreetly and appropriately. But do we really need a law in Wisconsin proclaiming that women can breast-feed wherever, however, and whenever they want?
Again, let’s consider my church. Suppose the woman who is breast-feeding is not tucked away on a folding chair in the rear of the church. She’s seated in a front pew and now decides to get up and walk down the center aisle, in full view of the celebrants and churchgoers, including young children. When she gets to the vestibule of the church, I tell her that she is more than welcome to nurse her baby in the back of church and I would be happy to set up a place for her. The woman gets upset. Under Risser’s bill, I could be fined $200 for interfering.
I repeat. I am not opposed to breast-feeding done discreetly…..but in the library, Pick ‘n Save, the center of Southridge Mall, a restaurant table?
This past Monday when I filled in for Jay Weber on Newstalk 1130 WISN Radio, I brought up this topic. Most, if not all my callers were women. Most were opposed to Risser’s bill. One woman was quite adamant, yelling that, and I am paraphrasing, no one needs to see someone’s (insert common term for breast) hanging out.
I tend to get miffed at this ACLU mentality that I should be able to do what I want, whenever I want, and you can’t stop me. Risser’s bill is unnecessary.
There’s a larger political issue to be considered. Democrats have control of the state Senate. Risser is the Senate President. His bill will get public hearings, huge wet kisses from the medical community and editorial writers, and a vote on the floor of the state Senate. Public health is important, I’ll grant you. But is this the best we can expect from Democrats who run the Senate? Their priorities are certainly questionable if this is the kind of legislation they’re going to hammer out.
An interesting article just came out on MSNBC.com on the whole breast-feeding topic. The headline is, “Food or lewd?” Read it
here.
