The House has rejected a bill that supporters say would make it easier for women to breastfeed their infants in public.
The bill was introduced after a woman who was breastfeeding an infant was asked to leave a Fargo restaurant.
The bill would take the phrase “in a discrete and modest manner” out of the law, and it would make it an infraction for a business owner to prevent a woman from breastfeeding.
Rep. Karen Karls (R-Bismarck) said an infraction could carry a penalty of up to $1000 – and she found that troubling. She said it is often a customer who complains.
"Who would be prosecuted in a private home, in a business, or a church, where others ask someone to cover up?" Karls said. "This is a culture issue, not a government issue."
But Rep. Shannon Roers-Jones (R-Fargo) said there are problems with the language the bill wants to remove.
"It is not indecent exposure for a male or a woman to expose their breasts," Roers-Jones told the House. "The only time a person can be charged with indecent exposure is if they are 'indiscreetly' breast-feeding a child."
The measure failed on a 61 to 32 vote.