It’s 2019, and still, for some reason, everyone seems to want to make life even harder for breastfeeding moms.
Mother-of-four Guillermina Rodriguez was slowly making her way through horrific midtown traffic in New York City, NY, when she realized she needed to feed her baby.
After looking for a place to stop for 45 minutes, Rodriguez finally pulled over in a commercial zone, out of the way of traffic.
She says she climbed into the back seat and began nursing her three-week-old baby when an NYPD tow truck pulled in front of her car.
“He’s backing up to tow my truck,” Rodriguez told CBS News, “so as I am in this position breastfeeding now I jump over to the front seat to honk so he can see you know, like, ‘Don’t tow my truck, I’m in here.'”
She says the ticket agent approached the vehicle, saw that she was breastfeeding, and backed away. But not before writing her a ticket.
For $115. Excuse us?!
“I’m actually breastfeeding on one side and pumping on the other so both my breasts are out,” she says. “And I turn and I’m like, ‘I’m breastfeeding the baby!’ And he kind of looks and he’s like, ‘Oh, OK,’ … puts the ticket on the windshield and leaves.”
A $115 ticket for feeding your baby. Objectively, that is insane and completely unfair!
Rodriguez Plans to Fight
Rodriguez says she intends to contest the ticket in court, and we certainly hope her case is fairly heard and it is ruled that she needn’t pay the fine.
“I think they should’ve been a little bit more sensitive,” Rodriguez told CBS News. And we’d have to agree.
The NYPD says that the ticket agent had already written the ticket before seeing Rodriguez breastfeeding in the car. Once tickets are written, they say, agents are powerless to void them.
Therefore, we hope the judge who hears Rodriguez’s case undoes the damage. Breastfeeding moms (and all moms) deserve better.
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