As a certified lactation counselor, Mary Jackson normally visits maternity wards and community centers. But on Dec. 6, 2022, she will make a detour for the second time to the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Jackson will not come to train nursing mothers or medical staff — something she has done skillfully for decades. Instead, she will come to defend her right to earn an honest living without being forced to obtain a cumbersome certification required nowhere else in the United States.
Sitting next to her in the gallery will be colleagues from Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere (ROSE), her Georgia-based charity that works to reduce breastfeeding disparities for African American women. Together, Jackson and ROSE sued to stop a 2016 Georgia law that would establish a state monopoly for one accrediting association that has pushed for these kinds of laws across the country.
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