Best (and Worst) States for Breast-Feeding

It may seem strange that laws protecting a mother's right to breast-feed in public are necessary in this day and age. Unfortunately, the plain fact is that the exposed areola still has the power to scandalize onlookers. Just as the states vary on cultural lines, they also differ in terms of legal protections for breast-feeding. See which states are the best—and the worst—for breast-feeding laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

California has multiple laws that create a welcoming climate for breast-feeding mothers. It all started in 1997 with California Civil Code § 43.3, which states that a mother can breast-feed her child "in any location, public or private … where the mother and the child are otherwise authorized to be present." Other California state laws require employers to provide a break and a private room for mothers who need to express milk, and also allow breast-feeding mothers to postpone jury duty.

Illinois has six state laws pertaining to breast-feeding. These include the right of nursing mothers to be excused from jury duty and 2004's Right to Breast-Feed Act, which states that mothers can breast-feed in any location, "irrespective of whether the nipple of the mother's breast is uncovered during or incidental to the breast-feeding." Illinois is also home of the Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act, which requires employers to provide break time to express milk. The law also helpfully requires that the private area in question must be a location "other than a toilet stall."

Mississippi has several laws that make life a little easier for a breast-feeding mother. She can be excused from jury duty, and she has the right to feed her baby anywhere she's authorized to be, just as in California and Illinois. The state also requires that licensed child care facilities provide not only a sanitary place for mothers to feed or express milk, but also a refrigerator to store pumped milk.

New York's has breast-feeding laws much like California's. But while these laws are all fine and good for the law-abiding, what is the incarcerated mother to do? As it turns out, they're in luck too, thanks to 2009's Correction Law § 611, which states that a woman in a correctional institution with a nursing child under age 1 can have the child "accompany her to such institution."

Virginia has laws similar to those in other states, such as the exemption of breast-feeding mothers from jury duty, the exemption from indecent exposure laws, and the requirement that employers provide time and a place to breast-feed or express milk.

Idaho has no laws relating exclusively to the protection of breast-feeding mothers. It gets exactly one mention in Idaho Code § 2-212, which pertains to jury duty, and that’s it. This law allows potential jurors a postponement “only upon a showing of undue hardship, extreme inconvenience, or public necessity, or upon a showing that the juror is a mother breast-feeding her child.”

Michigan has one breast-feeding law on the books which is slightly better than Idaho. The Michigan law that does address the matter states that whatever else breast-feeding is, it’s not public nudity. Just to make sure there’s no wiggle room for a lawsuit, the statute explains that it’s not public nudity “whether or not the nipple or areola is exposed during or incidental to the feeding.”

See our full list of the Best and Worst States for Breastfeeding

Michigan's sole breast-feeding law has been in place since 1994. It's a matter of personal taste whether it's worse to have only one such law for 18 years, or whether it's worse to have no such laws until 2005, as was the case with Ohio. According to the law that goes by the catchy name "Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 3781.55," mothers are free to breast-feed "in any location of a place of public accommodation wherein the mother otherwise is permitted."

Like Idaho, Michigan and Ohio, the South Dakota state legislature seems perfectly content to have a grand total of one breast-feeding law. It doesn't concern itself with where and when it can happen, but what it does do is make clear that breast-feeding is emphatically not porn. S.D. Codified Laws Ann. § 22-24A.2 goes into minute detail about what is and isn't "sexually oriented material." However, under "harmful to minors" and "nudity," the law states that "a mother's breast-feeding of her baby" is wholesome and, therefore, not included.

While the states that cannot be bothered to come up with more than one breast-feeding law are rightfully deserving of scorn, they at least bothered to come up with one. The same cannot be said for West Virginia, however, where mountain mamas have exactly no laws protecting breast-feeding.

For the full list of laws by state go to the National Conference of State Legislatures's site.

See the full list of the Best (and Worst) States for Breastfeeding in our Listbliss section. While you're there, stick around awhile! Create a playlist, grocery list, or a "best of" list that you can share with friends.