Burger King has announced a new corporate policy on breastfeeding after a nursing mother in one of its restaurants was asked to "either go to the bathroom to breast-feed or leave" when another customer complained. In the future, employees are told to inform complainers that "breast-feeding is permitted in the restaurant and suggest to that customer that he or she relocate to another section of the restaurant." See story from Yahoo/AP.
The only problem I have here is with the tone of the article: "Burger King adopted a corporate policy Friday allowing women to breast-feed their babies in restaurants" (emphasis added). BK is not "allowing" anything. The right to breastfeed anywhere (as long as the mother has the right to be there) is statutory law in most states, including Utah, where the incident took place. Here is a guide to breastfeeding legislation. So by publishing its new policy, Burger King is not really giving breastfeeders any rights, merely protecting itself from a planned "nurse-in" scheduled to take place.
Business owners be forewarned: no matter how pro-family your establishment is, if one of your employees harasses a breastfeeding mother, that mother will most likely get on the Internet and within a week you are likely to have hundreds of women show up at your place of business and nurse their babies. Kind of the La Leche version of a flash mob.
Also see my November 13, 2003 post "American Baby" on not breastfeeding in restrooms.
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