A mother who was breastfeeding her child at a grocery store on Sept. 25, in Columbus, Ga., claims a police officer threatened to arrest her if she didn’t cover up.
Like in Canada, Georgia law states that a mother has the right to breastfeed anywhere, anytime.
Savannah Shukla, 21, was breastfeeding her hungry one-month-old baby when she says the officer told her it was indecent exposure and someone might find it “offensive.”
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Shukla went on to cite the law to the officer. She says he responded by saying that wasn’t the case.
“He also pointed out how he could ‘already see my areola’ and that if someone saw my nipple (even if I were trying to cover up) that he would have to arrest me and that he ‘really didn’t want to arrest me,'” Shukla posted on Facebook.
At this point Shukla said she was overwhelmed by the confrontation and was in tears when a passerby, “April the Paralegal,” defended her and took photos of the incident.
Shukla says she filed an official complaint on Monday in hopes that other mothers won’t experience the same treatment.
“I’m so upset about it and I understand why this type of harassment can cause moms to stop,” she said.
Global News has reached out to the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office but has not received a response.
However, Sheriff John T. Darr responded to the incident on Facebook saying that women are free to breastfeed in public in Georgia.
“On behalf of the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, I would like to personally extend an apology to the woman involved, and we hope that she knows that these are not the opinions or practices of the office as a whole,” he wrote on Facebook.
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Darr later wrote that he met with Shukla on Sept. 26, and that a formal complaint was received and addressed. The sheriff said his officers will now get further training on breastfeeding to ensure that officers know and understand the law.
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