Nursing mothers can now breastfeed their children in any public or private location in South Dakota as long as they follow other state and local laws. This law went into effect last week, along with many other laws. South Dakota Birth Matters Board Member Evie DeWitt of Mitchell says that previous to this new law being enacted, the public could ask mothers whom were breastfeeding to leave a public place…
DeWitt says that it was time that mothers had their rights to feed in public…
DeWitt adds that it was not illegal to feed in public, but there was no protection in place previous to July 1st. She says that if a mother was in the middle of feeding her baby, and was asked to leave, she would have had to…
South Dakota Birth Matters was the main organization that got this bill put into place. DeWitt adds that unfortunately it does happen where people ask feeding mother to leave public places. Nursing mothers must still obey state and municipal laws, mostly aimed at public decency. However, no municipality may outright ban breastfeeding in public places.