Police Officer Gives Ticket While Mom’s Breastfeeding Her 3-Week-Old Daughter In Back Of Parked Car

Feb 12, 2020 by apost team

Being a mother is a hard and often thankless job, and when times get tough, mothers have to make challenging decisions in the interest of their children. This was exactly the case for mom Guillermina Rodriguez. Back in 2019, the then-30-year-old mom had to pull over while stuck in traffic in order to breastfeed her baby. As the mother was driving in traffic in midtown Manhattan, New York, traffic became increasingly tough. The mother had dropped her husband off for an appointment before proceeding to drive back home downtown. After sitting in traffic for 45 minutes, Rodriguez's 3-week-old baby was crying from hunger. 

Left with what Rodriguez felt was no other choice, the mother pulled over into a commercial zone to park and breastfeed her child. Because she was in the back seat of the vehicle, a police officer saw the vehicle, assumed it was unattended, and proceeded to write a parking ticket for the violation, as well as tow the car. However, Rodriguez noticed the officer and honked her horn to get his attention. Although the officer ceased to tow the vehicle, he proceeded to give Rodriguez the ticket. The ticket was for Rodriguez being parked in a commercial zone and totaled $115. Because Rodriguez was stuck in traffic, she opted for the commercial zone as a parking spot in order to not cause danger on the road. The officer did not see Rodriguez before he had written the ticket and claimed that he did not have the authority to annul a ticket that had already been written. 

Since the event, mother Rodriguez has attempted to fight back, as she felt the officer should have been more sensitive to her breastfeeding. Read on to learn more about the incident and the officer's response to Rodriguez's dispute over the ticket. 

According to ABC 7 New York, Rodriguez said the police officer showed up within two minutes of her moving into the backseat of the car to breastfeed. Rodriguez said:

"He just literally took out the tow truck, he was gonna tow the car, without even looking in there."

Rodriguez expressed that the decision to park in the commercial zone to breastfeed wasn't an easy one. She said her baby Ileana consistently cried before she made a choice:

"I'm like almost crying because she's crying and all I wanna do is pull over so I can attend to her." 

Because Rodriguez was in traffic for over 45 minutes, it was highly likely that her baby was hungry. 

According to the CDC's factsheet on breastfeeding, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies be breastfed for up to 1 year while the World Health Organization recommends "breastfeeding along with appropriate complementary foods up to 2 years of age or older."

With Ileana being only three weeks old, it was crucial that Rodriguez could breastfeed so her baby wouldn't go hungry. When Rodriguez saw the officer, she honked the horn with Ileana still latched to her breast:

"I show him the baby and obviously my breast...I'm like, 'I'm breastfeeding the baby,' and he looks and he goes like that and he goes like this and then he just puts the ticket and he walks away." 

According to People, Rodriguez planned to fight the ticket, as she wished the officer would have had more compassion for her situation.

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"Nursing should be urgent enough to exempt a fine. I think they should have been a little bit more sensitive. I feel like getting them a little more educated on that area will be a lot more helpful."

The NYPD officer claimed that he did not have the authority to void the ticket after he had already written it, hence why he left it on the windshield of Rodriguez's vehicle. 

According to NCSL Foundation for State Legislators, Rodriguez is protected by law to breastfeed in a public place. The law states:

"N.Y. Civil Rights Law § 79-E (1994) permits a mother to breastfeed her child in any public or private location."

However, this right does not give her the exemption to violate the law by parking in a commercial zone. Rodriguez told CBS News the rationale behind her deciding to park in the commercial zone:

"There was an immense amount of traffic. It took me like 45 minutes to an hour to just get from 42nd to 30th Street. Even though I saw it was a commercial area I'm like, 'I'm not obstructing the traffic... Let me just stay there and I can breastfeed the baby there."

Rodriguez believes that breastfeeding should warrant an exemption from ticket fines, especially in her case:

"I think they should've been a little bit more sensitive. I feel like getting them a little bit more educated on that area would be a lot more helpful."

According to CBS News, Rodriguez hopes that when she fights the ticket, that the judge will be a parent and therefore more understanding than the officer who ticketed her.

This story was modified and updated on Oct. 13, 2021, for clarifications.

If you were in Guillermina's shoes, would you have done the same? Do you think the officer should have given the ticket? Talk to us and tell us what you thought about this story. Don't forget to spread the news to your friends and family members, especially the ones with young children.