TOPEKA ? Gov. Kathleen Sebelius today signed into law a bill that allows a woman the right to breast-feed in any place she can legally be.

“We all want children to have the opportunity to grow up happy and healthy,” Sebelius said. “By reaffirming that mothers can breast-feed anywhere they have a right to be, we can help mothers and their babies.”

Efforts to establish the law were first pushed by women in Lawrence, including Amy Swan, who was confronted once at a Lawrence health club for breast-feeding her daughter.

House Bill 2284, also makes a Kansas public policy statement that a mother’s choice to breast-feed should be supported and encouraged to the greatest extent possible. In addition, it provides that the mother would be excused from jury service until she is no longer breast-feeding.