Right to breast-feed, nudity law on agenda

Breast-feeding mothers will be exempt from local anti-nudity laws if the Wichita City Council accepts a proposed change to the law at its meeting Tuesday. The proposal would bring Wichita's obscenity laws in line with a new state law that protects a woman's right to breast-feed "in any place she has the right to be." According to the current city law, display of the female breast -- specifically the center of the breast -- is considered nudity, and, consequently, off-limits in public. Violations are punishable by a $2,500 fine and a year in jail. The proposed change would add "a mother breast-feeding her child" as an exemption. Other exemptions include |children under 10 and people modeling nude for an art class. The law also does not apply to "any theatrical production that has serious literary, artistic, scientific or political value. "Not that nursing mothers have ever really had to worry, said breast-feeding experts. Brenda Bandy, professional liaison for La Leche League of Kansas, said that, to her knowledge, "nobody in Kansas has ever been arrested for indecent exposure" for breast-feeding a baby. She said communities are likely just amending their ordinances to align with the state law, which was approved by the Kansas Legislature last session. "Our intention was to clarify and protect that right, which already exists," Bandy said. "Now it's just that much clearer, that a woman has the right to breast-feed wherever she is."