Many of you know by now that I'm an accidental lactivist-- that is to say, I never felt strongly about a woman's right to breastfeed until I had a baby of my own. Matter of fact, seeing women nurse used to make me downright squeamish. But now that my nursing days are behind me, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to see a suckling baby. And I get predictably irate when idiots like  Bill Maher or uptight flight attendants try to interfere with a woman's legal right to nurse her child. I've blogged it, I've written letters...and should I ever have the good fortune to have another baby, you can bet I will be attending some nurse-ins.

So this story got my hackles up when I first read it. It seems a Boston woman was denied extra break time so she could pump breast milk during her nine-hour medical licensing exam:

Norfolk Superior Court Judge Patrick Brady said Currier has other options, beyond asking the board to change its rules for her.

"The plaintiff may take the test and pass, notwithstanding what she considers to be unfavorable conditions. The plaintiff may delay the test, which is offered numerous times during the year, until she has finished her breast-feeding and the need to express milk," he said.

Say WHAT?! That last statement? Me no likey.

Currier, of Brookline, has finished a joint M.D.-Ph.D. program at Harvard University while having two babies in two years. She has been offered a residency in clinical pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital in November, but cannot accept it unless she passes the test. Her goal is a career in medical research.

Currier has taken the test once already, in April when she was 8 1/2 months pregnant, but she failed by a few points.

"The judge's conclusion that there is no harm to a woman to putting her career off for a year is the basis of discrimination," Currier said. "Men do not have to put off their careers because they are feeding a child."

So at this point I am all full of righteous indignation, and full of sympathy for this remarkable woman, who has had two babies in two years while attending medical school at Harvard, no less, AND overcoming multiple learning disabilities.

You go girl! Let's delve a little further: