This week, the Seattle City Council unanimously approved legislation that protects breastfeeding mothers in Seattle from discrimination. Also this week, The Stranger published an article on this legislative victory that advocates have been pushing for – for over 9 months.
The new ordinance, which will likely take effect in May, will allow mothers to lodge discrimination complaints with the Seattle Office for Civil Rights, which will then investigate the alleged discriminatory businesses and collect statements from the mothers and witnesses. If the city finds a violation, it could impose fines of $750 or more, consistent with any other city discrimination charge (such as discrimination based on gender, race, or sexual orientation), and require that a business complete sensitivity training. In addition, a mother could seek claims of up to $10,000 in Seattle Municipal Court.
Leticia Brooks, one of the women advocating for this legislation (and quoted in The Stranger‘s article) shared her story at a Seattle City Council’s civil rights committee meeting last week. After having been forced to feed her child in a public restroom in the past, Ms. Brooks asked the committee, “Who wants to feed their child in a bathroom stall? … Would you eat your lunch in a public restroom?” (italics are mine). Local breastfeeding advocates – mothers, nutritionists, and doctors – have promoted the legal protection of women breastfeeding in public because, despite state-wide protection, women in Seattle continue to be discriminated against, stigmatized, and humiliated by employers, in restaurants, and by perfect strangers. These advocates argued their case by sharing that:
…nursing lowers child obesity rates, infection rates, and chronic diseases, while improving a mother’s mental and physical health (lowering breast- and ovarian-cancer risks, for example). They also pointed out that breast-feeding has been linked with reducing infant mortality rates.
Committee chair Bruce Harrell is the sponsor of this legislation. In the words of The Stranger‘s Cienna Madrid, Harrell “dismissed scattered opposition from sexed-up residents who squawked about the salaciousness of seeing a woman’s bare breast, saying simply, ‘This is a civil rights issue.'” To read the law itself, or to contact Seattle’s Office for Civil Rights with questions or to file a complaint, please visit their website.
YWCA Health Access: Empowering Women in Health 
Sarah DeBellis
/ April 12, 2012Great news. In Australia this right is protected by state and federal legislation. Occassionally you get someone who seems to object, but at they same time they get howled down by the masses. Currently nursing baby number 6, I’ve only ever encountered positive comments, and most of them from elderly people who are NOT shocked. Once on a plane I had to feed my twin babies in tandem, but nobody noticed as everyone was looking straight ahead at the in-flight movie. With the exception of the air steward who quietly said, “Now *that’s* talent.” Hopefully women will feel more comfortable to breastfeed where and whenver their babies need to be fed, and this will normalise it.
ywcakatie
/ April 14, 2012Thank you for your support, Sarah! It’s exciting legislation for us to have in Seattle. Many states, including Washington state, have similar protections, but the city of Seattle is clearly making a statement by providing additional support for women breastfeeding their children.
Here’s an article from The Herald out of Everett, WA, on this topic:
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20120409/NEWS03/704099824
Danial
/ September 28, 2013Breastfeeding in Seattle: “Would you eat your lunch in a
public restroom?” | YWCA Health Access: Empowering Women in
Health
Thank you for this article.
ywcakatie
/ October 1, 2013You are very welcome!