KAMLOOPS, B.C. – Local mother Tabitha McMillian is speaking up against what she is calling the unjust shame imposed on women’s bodies, after she was asked to leave a restaurant for breastfeeding herself in public.
“I’ve never been so humiliated in my life,” stated the new mother who just gave birth to her first child, Alex, seven weeks ago, who witnesses report was conspicuously not with her at the establishment during the time of the incident.
“It’s a travesty that we live in a world in which breastfeeding in public is seen as wrong. I was hungry. Why should I feel ashamed about my body?”
Witnesses report that McMillian entered Java Joe’s coffee shop on Lansdowne St. around 10am local time yesterday. After ordering a muffin and an Americano, she was reported seen suckling from her own nipple within minutes of sitting down. Staff and patrons say they then asked her to stop, to which she refused, emphasizing that feeding from your own breast was completely natural and stating that there was “plenty more where that came from.” McMillian was then asked to leave.
“Let’s be clear. We’re absolutely pro-breastfeeding,” said coffee shop owner Joseph Kirkland.
“But breastfeeding babies. What she was doing – Why? Why would you do that? – I had to draw the line when she started offering to cream people’s coffee.”
