The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed the Act Governing Breastfeeding in Public Places (公共場所母乳哺育條例), which makes it illegal for anyone to prevent women from breastfeeding in public.
The act stipulates that anyone who prohibits a woman from breastfeeding in public or asks that she leave a specific area to do so will face a fine of between NT$6,000 and NT$30,000.
The act also requires that department stores, megastores, government agencies, train stations, airports and public transit areas provide a breastfeeding room. Failure to abide by this requirement could result in a maximum fine of NT$30,000.
Those establishments will have one year to make breastfeeding rooms available from the time the act is promulgated.
Legislators also passed an additional resolution calling on the Department of Health to actively promote breastfeeding.
The resolution nevertheless said the department should abide by the WHO spirit of respecting a mother’s decision about whether to breastfeed.
“Breastfeeding is how a mother shows her love for her children as well as a woman’s right,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) told the legislature after the bill was passed.
“This country should create a breastfeeding-friendly environment so that women can feel comfortable nursing their babies,” she said.
Prior to passage of the bill, Taipei City on April 1 became the first city in Taiwan to implement the Public Breastfeeding Regulation (公共場所母乳哺育自治條例) guaranteeing a mother’s right to breastfeed in public.
Under the regulations adopted by Taipei, anyone who tries to prevent a mother from breastfeeding in public is subject to a fine of between NT$5,000 and NT$30,000.
Advocates of breastfeeding had been fighting for the right to breastfeed in public since a number of women in October 2005 were asked by Taipei Story House to leave because they were nursing their babies.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RSS