Judge: No Test Breaks for Breastfeeding

A Harvard University medical student about to begin her residency has lost a court case seeking extra time to pump breast milk while she takes a national clinical knowledge exam.

While it will be inconvenient for Sophie Currier to pump breast milk in the total 45 minutes of scheduled breaks during two nine-hour exam sessions on Monday and Tuesday, it is still possible for her to take the test, a Massachusetts judge ruled today. Hence, he refused to grant a requested injunction to require the National Board of Medical Examiners to give her 60 more minutes of break time each day, explains the Associated Press. (She reportedly is being allowed to take the one-day exam over two days because she has dyslexia.)

Currier, 33, had accused the board of violating her state constitutional rights and gender discrimination. However, Norfolk Superior Judge Patrick Brady didn't see a sufficient problem to justify an injunction. "The plaintiff may take the test and pass, notwithstanding what she considers to be unfavorable conditions," he said. "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."

Currier cannot start her new residency at Massachusetts General Hospital until she passes the test, according to the Boston Globe.

"What you're doing is screening out women because they are unable to take care of their dual roles as mothers and professionals," Currier's lawyer, Christine Smith Collins, told Brady during a Monday hearing, according to the newspaper. "It's unfair, it's unjust, and it's not in the public's interest."

Joseph Savage, the board's lawyer, said changing the test format would create problems for every other student who takes it. The board reportedly tried to accommodate Currier by agreeing to allow her to bring her breast pump to the exam and offering her an extra room to use for expelling her milk.