Michelle Ayala was hanging out with her children, enjoying a day at the beach, when a city employee decided to call the police on her. Michelle wasn't being loud or violent. She hadn't attacked anyone or disturbed the peace. She hadn't stolen anything from other beach-goers. The city employee called the police on her for breastfeeding her child.
The incident began when Michelle started breastfeeding her daughter. The Franklin Borough employee, Alison McHose, approached Michelle and told her to breastfeed elsewhere. Michelle refused to leave her other children or her spot on the beach to go breastfeed somewhere else since she was doing nothing wrong.
The Franklin Borough employee was furious. She told Michelle that she needed to cover up because breastfeeding was offensive to people, and there were children on the beach who could see her. Michelle asked the employee to please keep her voice down because her child was nursing and trying to fall asleep. The employee yelled at Michelle and called the police.
Someone was being the judgiest of Judies.
The police quickly sided with Michelle since - newsflash - PUBLIC BREASTFEEDING IS FULLY LEGAL IN ALL FIFTY STATES. The two holdout states, Idaho and Utah, legalized it this year. Ironically, this incident happened during Breastfeeding Awareness Week.
Michelle gave a brief interview about the incident - but even that went sideways. Commenters on the video called her a "freak" because the nursing child is two years old. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding a child until 2 and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding until at least 12 months and for as long as mother and child can after that. So.... yeah.
Here is her interview.
Twitter caught the story and has quite a bit to say about it.
We're wondering the same thing @Briankmcneal. When indeed.
