Unfortunately it is necessary to have laws to protect a woman's right to feed babies in public. Hopefully these laws free women and babies from the barbaric harassment and/or eviction from public spaces that so many have experienced. Tennessee lawmakers have added insult to injury by mandating that the right to breastfeed in public only applies to children under the age of 12 months. Dare to breastfeed after that age, outside of the closet, at your own risk. Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-58-101 et seq. (2006) permits a mother to breastfeed an infant 12 months or younger in any location, public or private, that the mother is authorized to be, and prohibits local governments from criminalizing or restricting breastfeeding.
Tennessee has the embarrassing distinction of being the one and only state, red or blue, to put an age limit on breastfeeding. This red state's predominantly male lawmakers have a long history of barbaric obsession with the control of women's bodies. State Senator Mike Faulk has a bill that would remedy this particular repressive outrage. It deserves support.
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