TSA: Get on Board With Breastfeeding - Breast Pumps are not WMDs.
Ladies and gentlemen of TSA, we'd like to direct your attention to the breast pump. We'll explain what this item is used for, and we would like the next few minutes of your complete attention.
We hope this information will help you the next time you flight screen a woman with a breast pump, so you will not freak out.
The breast pump is used to help mothers provide breast milk for their babies when they are unable to nurse. Breastfeeding is good for babies, its good for their mothers, and it's good for society as a whole. You should encourage it.
Humiliating a mother, as TSA did in Hawaii, by making her prove, in a public restroom, that the pump does what it's meant to do, does not really support this practice or TSA's reputation.
On behalf of babies everywhere, we look forward to TSA being on board with breastfeeding in the future.
Tell TSA, Breast Pumps are not WMDs.
We, the undersigned, are certain you understand your officer's recent blunder over the breast pump.
We do realize you have a hard job. It's just that, with the Facebook censorship, a woman losing her job over a breast pump issue, a Houston judge declaring that lactation isn't related to pregnancy or childbirth, and now this over-reaction by TSA, the patience of nursing mothers and their supporters is growing very thin.
We suggest your officers receive some serious sensitivity training on this issue. It's one thing to question the safety of anything brought onto an airplane these days, but it's another thing to humiliate and upset individuals unnecessarily, especially when new mothers and others bringing children on flights are usually stressed enough already.
Please do a better job in the future and get on board with supporting breastfeeding every way you can.
Thanks for your attention to this issue.
