Do we really have to have a controversy
over breastfeeding in public in Louisiana? Especially in a state known for
at least one location notorious for public exposure of female breasts without
babies attached?
It seems that in Leesville recently
a restaurant owner informed a woman that she could not stay on the premises if
she chose to breastfeed her baby uncovered – this in spite of R.S. 51:2247.1 that
allows a woman to do so “in any place of public accommodation, resort, or
amusement.” The female owner said if the mother did so she had to use a cover,
but many women find them cumbersome and larger babies may have difficulty with
them, and this case the mother refused. However, the law does not give owners
the ability to require that, and while the mother graciously does not plan
legal action against the establishment, the owner, citing decorum, put out a
sign demanding that breastfeeding patrons cover up and plans to build an
enclosed area in the dining room as a station for these mothers.
Besides the logistical problem in
the rare instance that multiple women wish to breastfeed at the same time –
which will be induced artificially as compatriots of the affected mother plan a
kind of “nurse in” at the restaurant in the near future – even having a
separate and enclosed area for this purpose does not affect a woman’s legal right
to breastfeed uncovered in public in Louisiana. In fact, it explicitly exempts
women from R.S. 14:106
that defines obscenity as showing the female nipple.
Technically, that law allows women
to expose their breasts publicly in Louisiana as long as it is not intentional
or doesn’t have “the intent of arousing sexual desire or which appeals to
prurient interest or is patently offensive.” (Local governments may enact
stricter criteria about what can’t show.) Only the last part might make any prohibition
against exposed women’s breasts illegal, which apparently is not offensive, not
even patently, in the Vieux Carre, but may be, in the opinion of the restaurant
owner to some patrons, in Leesville.
But, come on, people. Not only does
state law define breastfeeding openly not as “patently offensive,” but also as
by definition the sole biological reason for human female breasts is to provide
for breastfeeding, how can they performing their natural, beneficial act be
considered offensive to anyone (even if a number of human males think them
important for an entirely different reason)?
For better or worse, societal
opinion across almost the entire state assigns a sexual connotation to bared
female breasts, and whether communities choose to accept that and therefore through
the democratic process and societal pressure inhibit their display by law or by
shaming this simply should not apply that to the case of open breastfeeding. If
patrons in a restaurant believe the act indecent, they need to get over it, and
restauranteurs should understand a disapproving patron or two does not give
them the right to disobey the law.
Of course, in a way the state gives
mixed messages on this issue. While in R.S. 51:2247.1 it lauds breastfeeding as
a natural activity that may be engaged in public places, in R.S. 49:148.4.1 it
makes a presumption
that it should be out of view at taxpayer expense. That law required in at
least ten state buildings to construct a special room for breastfeeding and
pumping milk, estimated at the time of the law’s passage to cost a minimum of $42,000.
While one might sympathize with women who might feel more comfortable with this
option, they don’t need to do so on the taxpayer dime.
Regardless, Louisianans should get
with the program on this issue. The law is there to encourage this natural act
that conveys both physical and psychological benefits to mother and child.
Unreasonable narrow-mindedness by some on this is no excuse to flout the law.
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