Breast-feeding bill clears Senate

By Seanna Adcox

The Associated Press

COLUMBIA - S.C. mothers can soon breast-feed their babies in public without fear of being ordered into a dark corner or public bathroom.

A bill that allows mothers to breast-feed anywhere they have the right to be and exempts breast-feeding from indecent exposure laws cleared the Senate on Wednesday.

The House approved the measure in February.

Gov. Mark Sanford has not committed to signing it.

His spokesman Joel Sawyer said the governor sees nothing wrong with the bill so far, but he wants to review it further when it hits his desk.

"We're 10 inches from the goal line. It's been a fairly long battle," said Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, the bill's chief sponsor.

Limehouse introduced the bill after an incident last summer at a Victoria's Secret lingerie store in Mount Pleasant. Lori Rueger said a store clerk told her she could not breast-feed her 10-week-old daughter in a dressing room and encouraged her to use a public restroom in another store instead, a setting nursing moms call unsanitary and uncomfortable. The incident prompted protests and made national news.

Limehouse said he first proposed a breast-feeding rights bill in 1997, but it went nowhere. "The subject was almost ticklish. Legislators didn't know how to deal with it," he said.

Almost a decade later, lawmakers were "piling on" to support it, Limestone said.

Thirty-nine states have already passed laws related to breast-feeding.

Of those, 32 states, including Georgia and North Carolina, allow mothers to breast-feed in any public or private location.

Kansas became No. 32 last month when Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed legislation. Bills are awaiting governors' signatures in Kentucky and Mississippi.

"What a great day for breast-feeding moms," said Dr. Lewis Gregory, chief medical officer for Select Health of South Carolina. "We support the rights of women to feed their children whenever and wherever they need to be."

Studies show breast-feeding improves the health of both the baby and mother.

They also show that breast-feeding babies reduces their risk of becoming obese later, helps mothers return to a pre-pregnancy weight and improves a child's immunity system.

S.C. ranks near the bottom nationwide in percentage of mothers who breast-feed.

Lawmakers hope the approved bill will improve the state's numbers.