Breastfeeding rights in the United States / Karen M. Reproductive rights and policy, ISSN Includes bibliographic references and index. Breastfeeding Rights in the United States is an important addition to Praeger Publishers' Reproductive Rights and Policy series.
Preface
I am cursed for not breastfeeding my son and I am cursed for breastfeeding my daughter.” The political scientist in her wanted to understand this paradox and the seed was planted for this project. Second, several other scholars provided insightful comments on portions of this manuscript presented at professional conferences, and we are grateful to them.
Introduction
This book is a systematic exploration of breastfeeding rights, to the extent they exist, in the United States. In the 1960s, breastfeeding rates in the United States were low, and few women—feminists and non-feminists alike—were breastfeeding.
A Brief History of Breastfeeding in the United States
THE LEAGUE OF LA LECHE AND ITS HEIRS: THE REVOLT AGAINST THE SCIENTIFIC MOTHER AND THE RISE OF THE NATURAL MOTHER. This enthusiasm for breastfeeding as the optimal form of infant nutrition is echoed by American Medical's position.
Breastfeeding in the Public Eye: Public Opinion and Media Coverage
A full third (73 of 188) of newspaper articles quoted an official, compared to 24 percent of TV stories (6 stories) and only 14 percent of stories in women's magazines (8 of 57 articles).81. On the one hand, there was relatively little mention of breastfeeding in African American women's magazines.
Limited Rights: Breastfeeding Rights in Federal Law and Litigation
The Breastfeeding Committee, which fulfills one of the goals of the United Nations Declaration of Innocent, a document produced by a 1990 United Nations conference aimed at promoting breastfeeding worldwide.2. OWH reports – based on a post-campaign survey – that the campaign was successful in raising awareness of the importance of breastfeeding and recommending that babies be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life. As of fiscal year 2007, women and children in households up to 185 percent of the federal poverty guideline were eligible to receive WIC benefits.
As will be explained in detail later, working women who have experienced difficulty managing breastfeeding and work have filed lawsuits under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Also Despite the encouraging results of the National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign, the federal campaign has sparked criticism. The most expensive food item in the WIC program is infant formula; WIC accounts for as much as half of the infant formula purchased in the United States.
Additionally, even for those who can take full advantage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, workers can only take three months off.
According to the court, she then filed suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act: “(1) discrimination in violation of the ADA based on the theory that breastfeeding is a disability, (2) retaliation under the ADA for complaining about the allegedly inadequate facilities for her breast pumps.” The court ruled that breastfeeding is not a disability because pregnancy and related conditions are not a disability, citing the “ridiculous” language used in the Bond decision. Tozzi defended this position by linking breastfeeding to reproductive function, which was previously defined as a “major life activity.” The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Williams, stating that “the impact of the disability must be permanent or long-term.”35 The Supreme Court did not explicitly define “long-term” in its opinion, and the Department's definition of disability of Labor under the ADA does not specify a minimum duration for a covered impairment.
The woman, Kristen Fortier, claimed she was fired because of her stated intention to breastfeed her child after giving birth. According to Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram, the social construction of target populations “has a powerful influence on public officials and shapes actual policy making.”62 All public policies have some kind of “target population”—the population for which the policy is designed. positively or negatively affected. Furthermore, mothers' biological need to breastfeed or pump was not recognized by employers or courts.
For example, the Treasury Appropriations Act and Dike focus on the mother's right to breastfeed.
Uneven and Competing Rights
Breastfeeding Rights and State Policy
The first state to legislatively recognize the importance of breastfeeding was Michigan, which passed a law in 1970 requiring judges to consider whether a child is breastfeeding when deciding child custody in divorce cases.2 However, the vast majority of states adopted their own legislation since the nineties. Florida law also allows pregnant women and non-full-time parents with custody of a child under the age of six to be excused from judicial duty.3 1999 was the busiest year for breastfeeding advocates, with nine states passed legislation in that year; There was a lot of activity in 2006 as well, as five states passed breastfeeding rights laws. California law states that a woman's right to breastfeed does not include "the private home or residence of another." In Illinois, the law requires women who breastfeed in a.
Eighteen states (39% of those with breastfeeding rights laws) include this provision in their state code. They include Alaska's clause exempting a juror if that individual's service would endanger the "health or adequate care of his family."13 New Jersey allows a prospective juror to be excused if the individual has a duty to care for a minor child.14 South Carolina allows women guardianship and " duty of care". The bill passed in 2006 was introduced without the word "discreet". The word "discreet" was added as an amendment in the Kansas House of Representatives.
Uneven and Competing Rights 111 Senator in the South Carolina Legislature threatened to oppose the bill because he "didn't like telling businesses what to do." The irony, of course, is that the South Carolina law imposed no burdens on businesses.
A Democratic, Feminist Approach to Breastfeeding Rights
By approaching breastfeeding issues from the materially situated context of different women's lives, we can best understand what the right to breastfeed should look like. The right to breastfeed, a reflection on women's broader circumstances suggests, should not be converted into a duty to breastfeed. Women's backgrounds, specific experiences, race, ethnicity, and class status are all variables that complicate the decision to breastfeed or not.
In state and federal legislation, the right to breastfeed has also been defined as the right of women to breastfeed, to the almost complete exclusion of other actors. The state is absolutely right not to recognize women's right to breastfeed in these situations. Second, a woman's right to breastfeed should not be absolute over a father's parental rights, and women should not be allowed to use breastfeeding as a weapon to deprive men of their parental rights, especially after the child's first year.
A Democratic, Feminist Approach to Breastfeeding Rights 129 women's ability to make the most informed decision in the full context of their lives.
Notes
Istre et al., "Risk Factors for Primary Invasive Haemophilius Influenzae Disease: Increased Risk from Day Care Attendance and School-Age Members," The Journal of Pediatrics. Erik Lyle Mortensen et al., "The Association Between Duration of Breastfeeding and Adult Intelligence," JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association. Newcomb et al., "Lactation and Reduced Risk of Premenopausal Breast Cancer," The New England Journal of Medicine.
Man Assaulted in Breast-feeding on the Beach Brouhaha,” The (Myrtle Beach, SC) Sun News, May 8, 2006, (accessed via Lexis Nexis database, December 5, 2006). Arora and others, “Important Factors;” Heidi Littman, Sharon VanderBrug Medendorp, and Johanna Goldfarb, “The Decision to Breastfeed,” Clinical Pediatrics. Friel and others, “The effect of a promotional campaign on adolescent women's attitudes toward breastfeeding,” Canadian Journal of Public Health.
Fein og Brian Roe, "The Effect of Work Status on Initiation and Duration of Breast-Feeding," American Journal of Public Health Judith Galtry, "Lactation and the Labor Market: Breastfeeding, Labor Market Changes and Public Policy in the United States ," Health Care for Women International Porter, "Breastfeeding".
Bibliography
A current overview of breastfeeding legislation in the US. Available: http://www.lalecheleague.org/Law?Bills8a.html. The relationship between infant feeding and infections during the first six months of life. Journal of Pediatrics 126, no. Primary Invasive Haemophilus Influenzae Type B Disease: A Population-Based Assessment of Risk Factors. Journal of Pediatrics 108, no.
Differences in morbidity between breast-fed and formula-fed infants." The Journal of Pediatrics 126, no. Increased risk of daycare attendance and school-going household members.” The Journal of Pediatrics 106 no. Lactation and reduced risk of premenopausal breast cancer." The New England Journal of Medicine 330, no.
Reconstructing Motherhood: The La Leche League in Postwar America. Journal of American History 80, no.
Index
South Carolina Breastfeeding Action Committee (SCBAC), 90 South Carolina State Legislature, 90 Southerland, Diane, 77, 78 Southerland, Matthew Southerland v. Williams, Ella, 74 Williams, Patricia, 125 Winthrop University, 38 Wolf, Jacqueline, 67 Woliver, Laura , 57 Women, Immigrants, 69 Women in State Legislatures, 101 Women's Art of Breastfeeding, The, 28 Women's Health, Feminist Definitions, 7 Women's Identity and Rights, 124 -27 Women, Babies, and Children of Food. KEDROWSKI is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Winthrop University.
Her areas of research and teaching include media and politics, women and politics, American politics, and public policy. She has also published articles that have appeared in Armed Forces and Society, Journal of Political Science, Perspectives on Politics, Political Communication, PS and Teachers College Record. LIPSCOMB is an associate professor of political science at Winthrop University, where he teaches political theory and American politics.
Lipscomb has written in the fields of critical theory, postmodern political theory, and environmental politics.
