Breastfeeding bill nets do-pass nod
Rep. Paul Amador, R-Coeur d’Alene, speaks with two women after his bill received a do-pass recommendation. (Photo by NINA RYDALCH)
The bill that would allow mothers in Idaho to breastfeed in public received a do-pass recommendation Monday.
Currently, 49 states and the District of Columbia have laws protecting mothers breastfeeding in public and private, with Idaho being the only exception. Mothers breastfeeding in Idaho are only legally protected by their exemption from jury duty.
The bill was brought forward by Rep. Paul Amador, R-Coeur d’Alene, who is the father of an infant.
“Personally, I don’t think this is just a women’s rights issue,” Amador said. “This is also a children’s issue and this is a family issue for our little Idahoans.”
In 2003, Rep. Bonnie Douglas, a Democrat also of Coeur d’Alene, introduced a similar bill that said a mother had the right to breastfeed in public “irrespective of whether the nipple is exposed during or incidental to breastfeeding.”
While Douglas’s bill, H235, died before reaching the House, Amador’s received unanimous support from committee members.
“Quite frankly, I’m a little embarrassed that it took our state this long to do this,” said Rep. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise. “I know that there have been many women that have been trying to introduce this for a long time.”
Fairy Hitchcock, a former candidate of a District 16 representative seat, was the sole person to testify against the bill, with three people testifying in favor of it.
“You can’t express milk at a dining table in a big restaurant and be discrete,” Hitchcock said. “You can’t do it.”
Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, later asked Amador to clarify that the bill would not take away a private facility’s ability to “provide an area for our moms to breastfeed.”
Amador said the bill would just spell out that a person cannot be charged with public indecency for breastfeeding.
“If that’s all we’re doing, I’m really good with it,” Ehardt said.
The bill will next be heard in the Idaho House of Representatives.
Nina Rydalch covers the 2018 Idaho Legislature for the University of Idaho McClure Center for Public Policy Research.