PITTSBURGH -- A woman is facing child endangerment charges for breastfeeding her daughter while driving from Detroit to Pittsburgh, WTAE's Shannon Perrine reported Wednesday.
Catherine Donkers, 29, was apparently spotted by a truck driver while nursing her seven-month-old on the Ohio Turnpike. The driver became alarmed and called the state Highway Patrol.
Officers tried to pull Donkers over, but they say she wouldn't stop until she got to a toll booth in Portage County. She offered an affidavit as identification and was cited for not having a license, police say.
Donkers claims she did nothing wrong because Michigan has an exemption to its child restraint law for nursing mothers, but police say they have to abide by Ohio laws because that's where the stop occurred.
The suspect said she fed her baby before leaving Detroit but the child became hungry again.
Donkers said she doesn't think her actions were excessively dangerous.
"It's not like I'm trying to change a diaper while I'm driving," Donkers told Perrine. "She pretty much just lays there on the pillow in my lap. I would certainly submit that talking on a cell phone causes far more distraction than nursing a child while she's just laying there."
Her husband, Brad Barnhill, agrees.
"Most of the time, when she runs back and forth between here and her mom's place or here and her home, she stops at the rest stop to nurse," said Barnhill. "But that turns a five-hour trip into a seven-hour trip, and she had things to do. OK?"
In addition to the endangering charge, Donkers is accused of child seat violations.
Donkers said she was wearing a seatbelt because she would have "been a fool not to," but she did not restrain her baby because "it's lawful to nurse my child while I'm driving. It's not like she's sitting on the floor mat for a seven-hour drive."
The suspect believes the laws of her home state apply on an interstate highway. She and her husband say they plan to fight all charges and file a lawsuit.
Donkers is scheduled for an Aug. 6 court appearance in Portage County, Ohio.
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