A New Jersey mother of three said she was breastfeeding her daughter on the beach Tuesday when she was approached by a police officer.
Michelle Ayala said that she was nursing her 2-year-old daughter, Daisy, when she was first approached by a employee at Franklin Borough beach and asked “not nurse on the beach.”
Ayala said the woman called the police after she refused to stop.
“At this point, Daisy was no longer nursing because of all the noise. She was playing in the sand,” Ayala told NJ.com of the incident.
{mosads}Ayala said the police officer who arrived to the site shortly after the call side defended her right to breastfeed in public, citing New Jersey law.
“I just think it’s a normal, natural thing, nursing a child — whether she’s 1, or 2, or newborn — and I don’t think it’s offensive,” Ayala told the local outlet.
Franklin Borough’s municipal attorney John Ursin said he views the incident as an “opportunity for education and counseling” about the law.
“I think that a situation like this is a good reminder to all about the rights of a breastfeeding mother. I was glad that the Franklin police handled it well, reinforcing the breastfeeding mother’s right to breastfeed where she needs to,” Ursin told NJ.com.
Ursin also added that the borough employee who called the police was responding to a complaint from another person on the beach.
Franklin Borough Administrator Alison McHose defended the mother’s legal right to breastfeed, but also told the outlet that Ayala should be more conservative with her attire when nursing at the beach and that officials were right to call the cops given the circumstances.
In a statement to the New Jersey Herald, McHose later said the office regrets “the situation made any of the guests feel uncomfortable and are using this as an opportunity to remind all involved of a woman’s right to breastfeed under New Jersey law.”