La Leche League changes gender policy

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, April 2nd.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: fighting a losing battle.

Over the past few years, transgender ideology has allowed men into women’s bathrooms, sports, prisons, and now, support groups for nursing mothers. For almost 70 years, the organization La Leche League has supported breastfeeding moms and now breastfeeding “parents.”

EICHER: The cultural and policy changes came gradually, then all at once. WORLD’s Mary Muncy talked to a woman who saw all this from the inside.

MARY MUNCY: More than 20 years ago, Ruth Lewis was sitting in the backroom of a library full of breastfeeding moms snuggling her three-month-old. It was a place that felt safe to talk about aches and pains, a lack of sleep, or just needing space.

LEWIS: And you can have a moan about those things without being told, ‘Oh, well, maybe you should stop breastfeeding and give them a bottle.’

Lewis quickly became a leader with La Leche League or LLL. She led support groups and in 2019 she started editing the organization's newsletter for members.

LEWIS: I wanted to give back.

But as she got more involved, she started to notice a shift.

In 2016, a Canadian woman who identified as a man named Trevor became an LLL leader.

LEWIS: That was kind of a Trojan horse.

The organization started sprinkling in terms like “chestfeeding,” instead of “breastfeeding,” and the role of “parents” and “families” in breastfeeding to replace “mothers.”

Lewis says at first it was manageable.

LEWIS: I was obliged to use what LLL calls a variety of terms, which I wasn't happy to do it, but I kind of gritted my teeth and did as minimally as possible.

But she had a hard line. She would stick to the guidelines with her own articles, but she wouldn’t ask contributors to change their language and no one asked her to for almost five years.

LEWIS: And then there was an instance where one of the leaders had written a lovely piece and she'd written it using all sex-based, mother-based language.

Her supervisor wanted to change it to include language about mothers and parents or families.

LEWIS: Which is just ridiculous.

The writer agreed to change one of the instances on a technicality, but Lewis’ supervisors pulled the article at the last minute in favor of a different one—one with more ‘inclusive’ language.

LEWIS: It didn't talk about breastfeeding, and it didn't talk about mothers. And I, for me, that was the last straw.

She resigned as editor shortly after that, but stayed on as a support group leader.

She thought maybe she could still help from the inside.

She started talking to her supervisors and posting in LLL Facebook groups about the dangers of inducing lactation in men through hormones and medications. One leader told her that there’s plenty of research on inducing lactation in adoptive mothers.

LEWIS: And when I pointed out that those medications were being used on a completely different physiology, male, rather than female. She just didn't seem to think this was an issue at all.

Lewis also points out a man wanting to breastfeed may not be about what’s best for the baby. It may be about confirming his identity as a woman or worse.

LEWIS: A male wanting to breastfeed a baby is a safeguarding issue.

Plus, she says many women wouldn’t feel as comfortable in a support group with a man present.

LEWIS: Whether that's for religious or cultural reasons, whether it's because they've been subjected to male violence or sexual abuse.

It wouldn’t be that safe place anymore.

LEWIS: It's not the same. And there are women who would not be comfortable doing that, a lot of women.

She wrote about these problems and talked to her supervisors, but all of Lewis’s Facebook posts criticizing transgender ideology were censored or taken down.

By late 2023, Lewis and a few other leaders who shared her views decided to run for election to the board of trustees for the Great Britain branch and they won about half the seats.

One of the first things they did was get a legal opinion confirming that it’s illegal for the branch to serve anyone but “mothers,” which is defined in law as excluding males. Meaning, if Lewis and her team did start serving men identifying as women, like LLL wanted, they could be prosecuted.

But it didn’t matter. By the end of the summer, LLL suspended Lewis and those who agreed with her and by October of last year, the organization removed Lewis’ breastfeeding leader accreditation.

LEWIS: I was the only active leader in Nottingham, where I live. I had to tell them that, basically the group was shutting so I did. And I had some beautiful emails and messages from mums I've supported, and I spent probably about two days crying.

The mothers expressed how helpful the group had been to them and what it would mean not to have one anymore.

LEWIS: That really made it hit home, just what LLL had done to me, personally, and the utter betrayal of what LLL should be became crystal clear.

Shortly after that, one of the founders of LLL stepped down, along with a few other leaders because they saw the same issues Lewis did. They took their stories to the media. But LLL stuck to its guns.

LEWIS: It became clear that we were fighting a losing battle.

In November of last year, Lewis and the others who agreed with her decided to step down from the board and stand for reelection. They figured that if they were elected again, it would show LLL that it was in the wrong. But Lewis says between the organization revoking their accreditation and a media smear campaign, they lost.

LEWIS: So that was the end of our association with La Leche League.

As much as the separation hurts, Lewis says it’s a relief. It gives her time for other things—like starting her own mother-to-mother breastfeeding support group with some other former LLL leaders.

LEWIS: It's something that matters deeply to a lot of mums, and that's why it's important to keep fighting it.

She’s not sure when the organization will be up and running, but she knows that when it is, she’ll be back where she wants to be: helping moms and babies.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

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