In 2015, Virginia, following the trend of many other states, enacted a law affirming the right of women to breastfeed in any location where they are otherwise legally permitted to be. This legislation, codified in Va. Code $\S$ 2.2-1147.1, explicitly states, “A mother may breastfeed a child in any place where the mother is lawfully entitled to be.” Critically, the statute contains no express exemption for religious institutions or places of worship.
This legal framework recently became the subject of a high-profile dispute involving Summit Church in Springfield, a suburb of Washington, D.C. A mother and her legal counsel contend that the church violated state law when its officials requested that she use a private room, rather than the main sanctuary or “pews,” to feed her infant during a worship service.
The case raises complex questions regarding the balance between the state’s mandate protecting a woman’s right to breastfeed in public and a religious institution’s right to establish rules governing the conduct and atmosphere of its services and facilities. While many view the societal shift toward accepting public breastfeeding as non-shocking, the core legal and constitutional tension lies in the extent to which government regulation can dictate the internal rules of a church during worship. The enforcement of such a law against a religious body, absent a clear exemption, prompts a significant discussion about the intersection of public accommodation laws, religious liberty, and the scope of permissible state action.
