xpost on boobie artcile - has a funny line
Pro-breastfeeding bill goes to Ohio House
COLUMBUS - Women could nurse their babies in public places under a bill sent to the House today, overcoming objections from some pro-business lawmakers who had raised concerns about workplace accidents from spilled breast milk and restrictions on company decision-making.
The House Health Committee approved the legislation 19-1 after Republican lawmakers delayed the vote several hours while debating the business issues behind closed doors. The bill now goes to the full House.
Sen. Patricia Clancy, R-Colerain Township, sponsored the bill because of a woman's unsuccessful lawsuit against a Wal-Mart in Lebanon. In 1997, store officials asked Dana Derungs to leave when she tried to nurse her baby, Devin, on a bench by a dressing room. Although the store won in court, it later changed the policy.
Thirty states, including Indiana, have laws allowing breast feeding in any public or private location, including Indiana. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Ohio and Kentucky are among the 20 that currently do not have such laws.
Business concerns slowed the bill in the House after speedy and unanimous passage in the Senate last month.
Rep. Earl Martin, a Republican from the western Cleveland suburb of Avon Lake, threatened an amendment allowing business owners to request that mothers breast-feed in a "reasonable manner, time or location."
But he changed his mind today after studying states with similar laws and promising to monitor any problems Ohio's bill would create for businesses.
Clancy said it came down to the difficulty of defining discretion. "One person's idea of what discreet is, is certainly different from another person's," she said.
Earlier, Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Green Township, had said he wanted to give business owners immunity if a person slipped on spilled breast milk or baby spit-up. (!!!! lol)
linkage - http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050511/BIZ/505120304