BILL IN IDAHO HOUSE MAY FREE THE BOOBY FOR NURSING MOTHERS - AND THREATEN OTHERS WITH PRISON SENTENCES FOR TOPLESSNESS
Idaho state Representative Paul Amador (R) - (Coeur d'Alene) told the Associated Press on January 29, 2018 that there is currently a bill in the legislature to exempt breastfeeding mothers from Idaho's indecent exposure laws. The AP article also insists that Idaho is the only state in the country that does not afford these protections for new mothers.
In reading Idaho statutes, indecent exposure concerns only the exposure or display of genitals, not breasts (Idaho Code 18-4116), so, only in the event a police officer (then a court) somehow interprets that breasts are indeed genitals, there is no statutory authority currently in the books to cite or arrest a topless woman - breastfeeding or not.
If a court interprets that the legislative intent of the current or any new law is to equate female breasts with genitals as used within the state's indecent exposure statute, any person who exposes [her] breasts where another person is present - OR is offended or annoyed thereby - is guilty of a misdemeanor. If within a period of 5 years she is twice convicted for indecent exposure, the crime is a felony and she can be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison (18-4116 (2)).
Either the bill introduced in the legislature this session is unnecessary (breasts are not genitals), or the interpretation of the nature of female breasts as genitalia by state lawmakers is another sneak-attack in Idaho's on-going War on Boobs, and a threat to women everywhere in the state.
Read more about Idaho's War on Boobs on this blog.
In reading Idaho statutes, indecent exposure concerns only the exposure or display of genitals, not breasts (Idaho Code 18-4116), so, only in the event a police officer (then a court) somehow interprets that breasts are indeed genitals, there is no statutory authority currently in the books to cite or arrest a topless woman - breastfeeding or not.
If a court interprets that the legislative intent of the current or any new law is to equate female breasts with genitals as used within the state's indecent exposure statute, any person who exposes [her] breasts where another person is present - OR is offended or annoyed thereby - is guilty of a misdemeanor. If within a period of 5 years she is twice convicted for indecent exposure, the crime is a felony and she can be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison (18-4116 (2)).
Either the bill introduced in the legislature this session is unnecessary (breasts are not genitals), or the interpretation of the nature of female breasts as genitalia by state lawmakers is another sneak-attack in Idaho's on-going War on Boobs, and a threat to women everywhere in the state.
Read more about Idaho's War on Boobs on this blog.