2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-FOUR - Health and Sanitation (§§ 1 — 15010) › PART VII - Hospitals, Institutions and Health Programs (§§ 3001 — 3891) › Chapter 148 - Mothers and their Newborns (§§ 3511 — 3518b) › Subchapter III - Lactation; Discriminatory Practices Prohibited (§§ 3518 — 3518b) › § 3518 - Breastfeeding; prohibition of discriminatory practices

(a) Public policy. —
(1) It is hereby confirmed as the public policy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, through the Department of Health, and in accordance with the public policies established by the Department of Health and Human Services of the United States; the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the importance of increasing the breastfeeding practice. The Surgeon General of the United States recommends that newborn children until the age of one (1) year be breastfed, except if it has been medically contraindicated, to propitiate that children achieve an optimal health condition from the time of their birth.
(2) It has been shown that breast milk provides a better nutrition and higher immunity against diseases, is better to digest, and may increase the children’s IQ. Some sectors of society are against the promotion of breastfeeding. Likewise, the demands of modern life force new mothers who have a busy work schedule to choose formula or artificial milk to feed their babies. On occasions, some mothers are ashamed and even fear social repudiation or criminal accusation if they breastfeed their children in public.
(3) It is hereby declared that the promotion of family values and the health of infants demands that our society put a stop to the vicious cycles of shame and ignorance of men and women regarding breastfeeding, and in the genuine interest of promoting family values, our society shall encourage public acceptance of the most basic natural act between a mother and her child. This Legislature rejects that any mother should feel discriminated for breastfeeding her child.
(b) The right to breastfeed. — Notwithstanding any contrary precept of law, a mother may breastfeed her child in any public or private recreational place.
(c) Breastfeeding, prohibition of discriminatory practices. — Any direct or indirect act of exclusion, alienation, restriction, segregation, limitation, rejection, or any other act or practice of differentiation, including denying a person the total enjoyment of goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations in any public or private place which she attends, whether it is visited by the public or used for recreation, based on the fact that a mother is breastfeeding her child, shall constitute a discriminatory practice prohibited by §§ 3518—3518b of this title.
(d) Breastfeeding is not a violation of the law. — A mother breastfeeding her child in any place, whether public or private, where she is otherwise authorized to be, shall not be deemed as indecent exposure, obscene act or other punishable action established in similar sections that comprise these conducts in §§ 4629 et seq. of Title 33, better known as the “Penal Code of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico”, or any legal precept of penal or civil nature.
History —Apr. 23, 2004, No. 95, § 1; Sept. 19, 2007, No. 121, § 1.