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# Women have a right to breast-feed publicly
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/women-have-a-right-to-breast-feed-publicly/
- Published: 2002-07-18T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:32:46.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

startled to hear of Dotson’s experience.

“I was surprised it happened, especially in Santa Monica where it’s so progressive,” said Patty Martyn of West Hills. “But hopefully this sends a strong message to the entire community.”

Others said they think the law is a testament to the United States’ puritan heritage that women have to be protected by law in order to breast-feed their children.

“It’s a funny thing to think you have to be protected to feed your baby,” said Michelle Roberts of Culver City. “It seems funny to me that we would even need that law.”

However, California Women’s Law Center statistics indicate women are increasingly being asked to cover up or not breast-feed in public. The group’s senior staff attorney Nancy M. Solomon said in the past seven months there have been at least six incidents reported to them throughout the Los Angeles area.

“It’s legal to breast-feed in public — period,” she said. “You can’t ask them to cover up or ask them to go into a bathroom.”

> “I want women to feel like they can make the choice to breast-feed and not to feel obscene” — — ABBE DOTSON Mother

The California Women’s Law Center successfully sued Borders Books over a similar incident in the LA area. The Los Angeles-based center settled the case after the company agreed to re-train its staff on the state law.

Santa Monica pediatrician, Dr. Jay N. Gordon, said children who are breast-fed turn out to be healthier and more intelligent than those who are not.

“It has been well established that breast milk is the best form of nutrition and the optimum protection against disease for infants,” he said.

Dr. Gordon said breast-fed babies’ immune systems, and children who are breast-fed have lower rates of meningitis, diabetes, allergies and obesity while women who breast-feed experience healthy weight loss, lower rates of post-partum anemia, and reduced risk of breast and other cancers.

Mothers at the event said breast-feeding has made them feel much more healthy.

“It builds a stronger, healthier baby and it helps the mother feel much more natural,” said Kristen Hayed of Thousand Oaks. “We should make it as easy as possible for a woman to breast-feed.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 18, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071802.pdf?ref=smdp.com)