BP BHEAD INT S [atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to breastfeeding; amending RCW 9A.88.010, 49.60.040, and 49.60.215; adding a new section to chapter 49.60 RCW; and adding a new section to chapter 49.12 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 49.60 RCW to read as follows:

The legislature declares that the promotion of family values and child health demands putting an end to the vicious cycle of embarrassment and ignorance that constricts women and men alike on the subject of breastfeeding and represents cultural hostility to mothers and children that is based on archaic and outdated moral taboos. The legislature finds that:

(1) The American academy of pediatrics recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and breastfeeding with solids to continue for at least twelve months. The American academy of pediatrics recommends that mothers begin breastfeeding within the first hour after delivery and recommends that arrangements be made to provide expressed breast milk if the mother and child must separate during the first year;

(2) Breast milk contains all the nutrients a child needs for ideal growth and development, many of which can only be found in breast milk. Breast milk is easy to digest and helps guard against juvenile diabetes, lymphomas, Crohn's disease, and a number of chronic liver diseases;

(3) Studies show that children who are not breastfed have higher rates of death, meningitis, childhood leukemia and other cancers, diabetes, respiratory illnesses, bacterial and viral infections, diarrheal diseases, allergies, obesity, and developmental delays;

(4) In 1997, the United States had one of the lowest breastfeeding rates of all industrialized nations, and one of the highest rates of infant mortality;

(5) Breastfeeding may help reduce the mother's risk of breast and ovarian cancer and osteoporosis;

(6) Breastfeeding releases oxytocin, a hormone in a woman's body that causes her uterus to return to its normal size and shape more quickly after birth. Breastfeeding also releases prolactin, a hormone which promotes closeness between a mother and her child;

(7) Women with children are the fastest growing segment of today's labor force;

(8) At least fifty percent of women who are employed when they become pregnant return to the work force by the time their children are three months old;

(9) Women who wish to continue breastfeeding after returning to work have relatively few and simple needs: Availability of suitable, dependable, efficient breast pumps; a convenient, sanitary, safe, private, and comfortable location at the workplace; and the ability during the work shift to express milk from her breasts and safely store it;

(10) Women who are allowed to breastfeed in their place of employment benefit their employers because these women have higher morale, higher self-esteem, increased productivity, more company loyalty, and lower health care costs;

(11) Childhood illness is a frequent cause of absenteeism among employed parents. Work programs that aim to improve infant health may also bring about a reduction in employee absenteeism;

(12) Lower incidents of illness in the breastfed infant allows the parents more time for attention to siblings and other family duties and reduces parental absence from work and lost income;

(13) Although the pregnancy discrimination act, enacted by Congress in 1978, prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition, courts have not interpreted the pregnancy discrimination act to include breastfeeding.

Sec. 2. RCW 9A.88.010 and 1990 c 3 s 904 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) A person is guilty of indecent exposure if he or she intentionally makes any open and obscene exposure of his or her person or the person of another knowing that such conduct is likely to cause reasonable affront or alarm. The act of breastfeeding or expressing breast milk is not indecent exposure.

(2) Indecent exposure is a misdemeanor unless such person exposes himself or herself to a person under the age of fourteen years in which case indecent exposure is a gross misdemeanor on the first offense and, if such person has previously been convicted under this subsection or of a sex offense as defined in RCW 9.94A.030, then such person is guilty of a class C felony punishable under chapter 9A.20 RCW.

Sec. 3. RCW 49.60.040 and 1997 c 271 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:

As used in this chapter:

(1) "Person" includes one or more individuals, partnerships, associations, organizations, corporations, cooperatives, legal representatives, trustees and receivers, or any group of persons; it includes any owner, lessee, proprietor, manager, agent, or employee, whether one or more natural persons; and further includes any political or civil subdivisions of the state and any agency or instrumentality of the state or of any political or civil subdivision thereof;

(2) "Commission" means the Washington state human rights commission;

(3) "Employer" includes any person acting in the interest of an employer, directly or indirectly, who employs eight or more persons, and does not include any religious or sectarian organization not organized for private profit;

(4) "Employee" does not include any individual employed by his or her parents, spouse, or child, or in the domestic service of any person;

(5) "Labor organization" includes any organization which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances or terms or conditions of employment, or for other mutual aid or protection in connection with employment;

(6) "Employment agency" includes any person undertaking with or without compensation to recruit, procure, refer, or place employees for an employer;

(7) "Marital status" means the legal status of being married, single, separated, divorced, or widowed;

(8) "National origin" includes "ancestry";

(9) "Full enjoyment of" includes the right to purchase any service, commodity, or article of personal property offered or sold on, or by, any establishment to the public, and the admission of any person to accommodations, advantages, facilities, or privileges of any place of public resort, accommodation, assemblage, or amusement, without acts directly or indirectly causing persons of any particular race, creed, color, sex, national origin, or with any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a disabled person, to be treated as not welcome, accepted, desired, or solicited;

(10) "Any place of public resort, accommodation, assemblage, or amusement" includes, but is not limited to, any place, licensed or unlicensed, kept for gain, hire, or reward, or where charges are made for admission, service, occupancy, or use of any property or facilities, whether conducted for the entertainment, housing, or lodging of transient guests, or for the benefit, use, or accommodation of those seeking health, recreation, or rest, or for the burial or other disposition of human remains, or for the sale of goods, merchandise, services, or personal property, or for the rendering of personal services, or for public conveyance or transportation on land, water, or in the air, including the stations and terminals thereof and the garaging of vehicles, or where food or beverages of any kind are sold for consumption on the premises, or where public amusement, entertainment, sports, or recreation of any kind is offered with or without charge, or where medical service or care is made available, or where the public gathers, congregates, or assembles for amusement, recreation, or public purposes, or public halls, public elevators, and public washrooms of buildings and structures occupied by two or more tenants, or by the owner and one or more tenants, or any public library or educational institution, or schools of special instruction, or nursery schools, or day care centers or children's camps: PROVIDED, That nothing contained in this definition shall be construed to include or apply to any institute, bona fide club, or place of accommodation, which is by its nature distinctly private, including fraternal organizations, though where public use is permitted that use shall be covered by this chapter; nor shall anything contained in this definition apply to any educational facility, columbarium, crematory, mausoleum, or cemetery operated or maintained by a bona fide religious or sectarian institution;

(11) "Real property" includes buildings, structures, dwellings, real estate, lands, tenements, leaseholds, interests in real estate cooperatives, condominiums, and hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, or any interest therein;

(12) "Real estate transaction" includes the sale, appraisal, brokering, exchange, purchase, rental, or lease of real property, transacting or applying for a real estate loan, or the provision of brokerage services;

(13) "Dwelling" means any building, structure, or portion thereof that is occupied as, or designed or intended for occupancy as, a residence by one or more families, and any vacant land that is offered for sale or lease for the construction or location thereon of any such building, structure, or portion thereof;

(14) "Sex" means gender;

(15) "Aggrieved person" means any person who: (a) Claims to have been injured by an unfair practice in a real estate transaction; or (b) believes that he or she will be injured by an unfair practice in a real estate transaction that is about to occur;

(16) "Complainant" means the person who files a complaint in a real estate transaction;

(17) "Respondent" means any person accused in a complaint or amended complaint of an unfair practice in a real estate transaction;

(18) "Credit transaction" includes any open or closed end credit transaction, whether in the nature of a loan, retail installment transaction, credit card issue or charge, or otherwise, and whether for personal or for business purposes, in which a service, finance, or interest charge is imposed, or which provides for repayment in scheduled payments, when such credit is extended in the regular course of any trade or commerce, including but not limited to transactions by banks, savings and loan associations or other financial lending institutions of whatever nature, stock brokers, or by a merchant or mercantile establishment which as part of its ordinary business permits or provides that payment for purchases of property or service therefrom may be deferred;

(19) "Nursing mother status" means a woman who is breastfeeding or who is expressing breast milk;

(20) "Families with children status" means one or more individuals who have not attained the age of eighteen years being domiciled with a parent or another person having legal custody of such individual or individuals, or with the designee of such parent or other person having such legal custody, with the written permission of such parent or other person. Families with children status also applies to any person who is pregnant or is in the process of securing legal custody of any individual who has not attained the age of eighteen years;

((~~(20)~~)) (21) "Covered multifamily dwelling" means: (a) Buildings consisting of four or more dwelling units if such buildings have one or more elevators; and (b) ground floor dwelling units in other buildings consisting of four or more dwelling units;

((~~(21)~~)) (22) "Premises" means the interior or exterior spaces, parts, components, or elements of a building, including individual dwelling units and the public and common use areas of a building;

((~~(22)~~)) (23) "Dog guide" means a dog that is trained for the purpose of guiding blind persons or a dog that is trained for the purpose of assisting hearing impaired persons;

((~~(23)~~)) (24) "Service animal" means an animal that is trained for the purpose of assisting or accommodating a disabled person's sensory, mental, or physical disability.

Sec. 4. RCW 49.60.215 and 1997 c 271 s 13 are each amended to read as follows:

It shall be an unfair practice for any person or the person's agent or employee to commit an act which directly or indirectly results in any distinction, restriction, or discrimination, or the requiring of any person to pay a larger sum than the uniform rates charged other persons, or the refusing or withholding from any person the admission, patronage, custom, presence, frequenting, dwelling, staying, or lodging in any place of public resort, accommodation, assemblage, or amusement, except for conditions and limitations established by law and applicable to all persons, regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, nursing mother status, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a disabled person: PROVIDED, That this section shall not be construed to require structural changes, modifications, or additions to make any place accessible to a disabled person except as otherwise required by law: PROVIDED, That behavior or actions constituting a risk to property or other persons can be grounds for refusal and shall not constitute an unfair practice.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. A new section is added to chapter 49.12 RCW to read as follows:

(1) Except where reasonable safety or security considerations require other options, an employer must make reasonable efforts to provide a convenient, sanitary, safe, private, and comfortable room or other location, in close proximity to the work area, other than a restroom, where the employee can express her milk in privacy.

(2) An employer may use the designation "baby-friendly" on its promotional materials if the employer has an approved workplace breastfeeding policy addressing at least the following:

(a) Flexible work scheduling, including scheduling breaks and permitting work patterns that provide time for expression of breast milk;

(b) Convenient, sanitary, safe, private, and comfortable locations allowing privacy for breastfeeding or expressing breast milk;

(d) A convenient hygienic refrigerator in the workplace for the mother's breast milk.

(3) Employers seeking approval of a workplace breastfeeding policy must submit the policy to the department of health. The department of health shall review and approve those policies that meet the requirements of this section.

(4) For the purposes of this section, "employer" includes those employers defined in RCW 49.12.005 and also includes the state, state institutions, state agencies, political subdivisions of the state, and municipal corporations or quasi-municipal corporations.