Restaurant Tells Breastfeeding Mom To ‘Cover Up’: Will You Agree With Their Reason? [Video]

A restaurant tells a breastfeeding mom to “cover up” while she’s out to dinner with her family. Erin Klein and her husband, Adam, don’t see why the place they went to eat at Clackamas Town Center in Portland, Oregon is making such a big deal about the incident. KPTV Fox 12 News reports that The Ram Restaurant and Brewery aren’t condoning Erin’s breastfeeding decision for their own reasons.

A restaurant employee approached Erin while she nurses her son, Isaac, and asks her to cover herself up. Mr. Klein informs the man that, according to Oregon law, women are allowed to breastfeed in public. The employee leaves their table temporarily, but returns to say that even though it’s Oregon law, customers were complaining. So, the employee asks her to cover up once again.

The Kleins say they were never asked to leave the restaurant, but were made to feel uncomfortable and left as soon as they finished dinner.

Adam Klein says:

“No one was giving us dirty looks. Erin is always careful to minimize how much her breast is exposed, but Isaac and many other babies won’t eat with a blanket over them. They’ll pull it off.”

The regional leader for The Ram provided this statement to FOX 12:

“The issue in this case is not a woman’s right to breast feed her child, women have been breast feeding in our restaurants for decades without any issue and we absolutely respect that right. In this case, we were acting on concerns of other guests including mothers with children that they were offended by the lack of discretion with regards to exposure. We were simply intervening on these guests’ behalf and at no time did we ask the Kleins to leave the restaurant or to stop breastfeeding their child. We wish that the law cited was clear with regards to how much is socially acceptable, but it is not and subsequently up for interpretation. In the future, we hope the legislature clarifies the law with additional guidelines for restaurants and other public places.”

What does Erin Klein have to say about this? The breastfeeding mom who was told to “cover up” at the restaurant tells KOIN 6 News:

“I certainly don’t jump up on the table and do a strip tease. That’s not what we’re there for. We’re there minding our own business, having our own meal and I guess if other people are bothered by it, I guess maybe they should focus on dinner with their family.”

Erin and Adam Klein submitted an online review of the restaurant; they won’t be back.

Was the restaurant justified in asking the breastfeeding mom to “cover up”?

[Image via KPTV Fox 12 News]