This afternoon, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee voted unanimously in favor of Senator Jennifer Wexton’s (D-Loudoun) bill SB 1427, granting women the right to breastfeed in public. If the Governor signs this bill into law, Virginia will join 47 other states in allowing women to nurse whenever and wherever in Virginia, and put an end to the discrimination that nursing mothers face. Currently, the only other two states where women can be prosecuted for breastfeeding in public are South Dakota and Idaho.
“This bill will provide that a mother may breastfeed in any place where she is legally present,” said Senator Wexton. “As long as there have been people, there have been nursing mothers. These mothers are not causing disruption, they’re not doing anything to hurt anyone else, they are just trying to feed their children.”
In spite of a redundant exchange in which Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Rockingham) compared a nursing baby to a loaded rifle, SB 1427 reported unanimously and will appear on the Senate floor in coming days.
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