Burlington Airport, Vermont - November 21, 2006
A Vermont woman has organized a nationwide nurse-in for Tuesday.
It will be similar to the one at the Burlington Airport last week, when dozens of mothers converged in front of the Delta ticket counter. The breast feeding mothers were protesting a flight attendant's refusal to allow an air passenger to nurse her baby.
The incident happened on a Delta commuter jet leaving Burlington.
Chelsea Clark of Fairfax used the internet to organize the nation-wide "nurse-in."
It should be noted that word of this protest came after the airline announced it had disciplined the flight attendant and issued an apology.
For story & video click on Channel 3 - WCAX at:
http://www.wcax.com/Global/category.asp?C=18195&nav=menu183_1
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The following article written by Rick Burnham also appeared in yesterday's St. Albans Messenger:
Monday November 20, 2006
Fairfax woman helps organize nurse-in
Breastfeeding rights protest goes national
By RICK BURNHAM | Messenger Staff Writer
FAIRFAX – The protest scheduled for Delta Airline ticket counters
around the nation on Tuesday – where hundreds of mothers will
breastfeed their babies to demonstrate their angst over an Oct. 13
incident involving a nursing mother and a flight that arrived at
Burlington International Airport – is about more than just the right to
breastfeed.
It is about awareness, about protection, and about civil
rights, according to the local woman who helped organize it.
“It is a much bigger issue to me,” said Chelsea Clark, 31,
of Fairfax, who today said she used Web message boards to communicate
the need to get involved in the issue. “This type of thing happens all
the time, and it is not OK with me at all. I felt like I wanted to do
something about it.”
Clark said Emily Gillette, a New Mexico woman who says she
was booted from a Freedom Airlines (a Delta subsidiary) flight in
Burlington on Oct. 13 after refusing to cover up while breast-feeding,
should be commended for speaking up on the issue. Gillette has filed a
complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission as a result of the
incident.
“I feel grateful to Emily for speaking up,” said Clark, who
added she has conversed with Gillette online. “She has helped us get
attention on this issue on a federal level. Now we have to take this
ball and run with it.”
And run with it they will, Clark said, hopefully attracting
the attention of lawmakers nationwide. Ideally, she added, those who
choose to breastfeed their babies will be protected by legislation.
Because the practice is protected in Vermont – state law
says a mother may breast-feed anywhere in public – and because it is a
natural thing to do for many mothers, many state residents tend to take
it for granted, said Clark, who has two young children of her own. But,
as of November 2004, 12 states had yet to enact similar breastfeeding
laws, according to Jessica Gunsch, Breastfeeding Editor of BellaOnline,
a Web site billed as the “Voice of Women.”
Clark hopes there will soon be federal laws governing
breastfeeding, and she hopes Tuesday’s “nurse-in,” and others like it,
help pave the way. Mothers sat on the floor near the Delta Airlines
counter in Burlington, breast-fed their babies and held signs in a
similar protest last week.
“I hope there is a good turnout, and awareness is increased
and enough attention is brought to this that Congress adopts a
breastfeeding protection act,” she said. “This should be put into law
and be included in our civil rights.”
The commuter airline operated by Delta said it has
disciplined the flight attendant who ordered Gillette off the plane in
Burlington. A spokesman for Freedom Airlines said the pilot apologized
and asked Gillette and her family to get back on the plane but Gillette
said that never happened.
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