I’ve recently been really infuriated by the fiasco we Americans are calling the “Healthcare Debate”. Watching attempts to erode women’s rights and our healthcare needs being treated like a bargaining chip has a tendency to do that for me. Go Figure. I am confined to Facebook status updates, e-mail and online donations to organizations like Planned Parenthood for my activism since I’m living in Mexico. I hope I can be excused for missing the following in the dust swirling around the metric-ton of tom-foolery (Keeping it G-rated for the kiddies) involved in this part of the political process.
To what do I refer? Well, I caught a ray of breastfeeding sunshine in this mess (yes I should be sleeping but I’m pulling up all the breastfeeding blogs I can find to put in my feed reader).
I clickity-clicked a link that came up in my Google search of “breastfeeding blog” and found myself reading “What the Senate Health-Care Bill Says About Breast Feeding”
So – What ARE they saying?
Basically, senators are saying that employers would be required to give mothers “a reasonable break time” during working hours to pump/express breastmilk. Additionally they would be required to provide those mothers with a private area in which to pump/express that isn’t a restroom! You can read the bill yourself to get the full legalesed version.
I don’t want to get my hopes up too high but I’m smiling on my way to bed. This will give me something POSITIVE to keep an eye on as the process grinds on.
