A group of women breastfeed their children at Republic square in Buenos Aires on August 4, 2013, during a self-organized demo to promote breastfeeding and break down the prejudice of doing it in public. On Saturday, hundreds of Argentinian women breastfed in public to protest the prevention of a woman to publicly breastfeed her baby. AFP FILE
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina 鈥� Hundreds of women turned out in Argentina to breastfeed in public Saturday, in protest at the removal of a mother for nursing publicly in a Buenos Aires square last week.
Waving signs that read 鈥淣o repression; nursing is not up for discussion鈥� and 鈥淢y breasts, my rights; I鈥檓 not interested in your opinion,鈥� some 500 women demonstrated in support of Constanza Santos, who police took from the square for nursing her nine-month-old.
Instead of a sit-in, some called the protest a breastfeed-in.
Supporters said the case was disturbing and that they were not going to let mothers鈥� rights be trampled on.
Similar demonstrations were held in other cities, including Mar del Plata, Tucuman and Neuquen.
鈥淭his is great because it sheds light on a problem. And police need to be on the public鈥檚 side and not work against them,鈥� said Argentine human rights activist Adolfo Perez Esquivel, the 1980 Nobel peace laureate./rga