Mother claims cop gave her ‘retaliatory’ ticket for breastfeeding in car at Philadelphia airport

A new mother in Philadelphia filed a formal complaint with the Philadelphia Police Department accusing an officer of harassing her and issuing a “retaliatory” parking ticket because he did not like her breastfeeding in her car.

Caroline New took her daughter Amelia to the Philadelphia International Airport on Sunday afternoon to pick up New’s sister who was coming to visit her niece for the first time, CBS Philly reported Monday.

After arriving at the terminal curb around 3:45 p.m., Amelia began crying, so New put the car in park and began breastfeeding her daughter.{mosads}

“At that point Amelia started crying so I did what any new mom would do,” New said.

New said that is when she was caught off-guard by an officer and “humiliated.”

“My window was down. I could hear him audibly groan in disgust and he came up to the window and he told me to cover up,” New said.

The mom said she confronted the officer after her daughter was finished feeding.

“I wanted to get his name and badge number so that I could perhaps follow up,” she said. “He, at that point, walked back toward my car and issued me a parking violation.”

New told CBS Philly that she filed a formal complaint with the police department because she believes the ticket was retaliatory.

“My hope is that no new mom has to experience what I went through,” New said. “It is legal. It’s something that we should be proud of, not ashamed of.”

A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department confirmed to The Hill that the incident is being investigated by internal affairs.

Both local and state law protect a woman’s right to breastfeed in public.

Philadelphia in 1997 became the first U.S. city to legally protect a women’s right to breastfeed outside of her home.

Woman are permitted to breastfeed in public and no one is permitted to ask them to leave or to move from a public space under the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance, according to the Women’s Law Project.

Pennsylvania’s 2007 Freedom to Breastfeed Act permits a woman to breastfeed her child in any location, public or private, where the mother and child are otherwise allowed to be present, irrespective of whether or not the mother’s breast is covered during or incidental to the breastfeeding.

The act of breastfeeding is not considered a crime of indecent exposure, open lewdness, obscenity, or nuisance under state law.