Parents can be a powerful voice for change. And if you want proof of that, just talk to Ellie Klein, a Seattle mother of two, whose 2023 experience as a prospective juror at Seattle Municipal Court was so upsetting she felt compelled to ensure it didn’t happen to another parent.
On Jan. 1, 2027 thanks in part to the willingness of moms like Klein to speak out, a new Washington law kicks in that exempts parents who are breastfeeding or expressing breast milk for an infant under age 2 from jury service.
A very bad day
For Klein, becoming an advocate for other parents began when she received a jury summons while on medical leave after the birth of her second child, Miles. She was able to delay the service until her son was six months old. At that time, Miles was still exclusively breastfeeding, meaning Klein needed to feed him or pump breast milk every two to three hours.
Klein recalls: “I asked if I could either bring my baby, or if they had a lactation room, or if they could excuse breastfeeding jurors, given that I already knew from having my first baby, that the schedule of jury duty is unpredictable, the schedule of breastfeeding is pretty specific, and those two things might not align.
“They assured me that this was something they had accommodated before and that they had a lactation room,” she adds. “I could not bring my baby, but they said I was very likely to get excused right away, given these circumstances.”
On the appointed date, Klein packed up her pump, left the baby with her husband, and drove 40 minutes to the courthouse. When she checked in, she asked about the lactation room—given the drive, it was already time to pump.
“The woman at the front desk sort of grimaced at me and actually said, ‘Oh, that is really inconvenient, because orientation is about to start.’ Indignation one, thought Klein: Rude staff uneducated in the needs of nursing moms.
Like the King County Superior Court, the Seattle court offers online juror information and culling. But while the county offers some online jury selection (called voir dire), Seattle requires prospective jurors to come to court early in the morning and sit in a voir dire lounge, waiting to be called for the jury selection process on a case.
And that room—or the fact that it was not where Klein waited out much of her day in the courthouse—was indignation number two: the inequity.
“The Seattle courthouse room where the jurors wait is beautiful. It’s the top floor. It’s immaculate. You have a floor-to-ceiling window view of the city,” Klein said. “But there was no lactation room or private space there. Instead, the room that they led me to was multiple floors down, through multiple key fobs and elevators, and in an employee area.
The walls that greeted Klein in a room not designed for breastfeeding (Image: Ellie Klein)
“The space they brought me to was gross. There was, literally, garbage on the floor. It was really unsanitary, crumbs all over the floor, stains on the wall, and it had a tiny little table that was not big enough for the pump, and a filthy leather chair. Further, the room was not labeled as a lactation room for nursing only to prevent staff from walking in on an exposed parent. She had to put her milk in the employee refrigerator rather than a designated box.
On her second trip to the room, she found a man sleeping there. The clerk who led her to the room offered instead a fitness room lined with dirty equipment.
“I said, ‘No way, this is not acceptable.’” Eventually, after hours at the courthouse—and after doing the trek back and forth to her home during lunch to feed her baby and pump in a clean space—Klein was released from jury duty.
‘This is wrong’
She made a beeline to Seattle’s Office of Civil Rights to file a complaint. She wanted to ensure that breastfeeding parents either had a clean, secure, labeled space to pump to feed their babies in if they must be in the courthouse, or for breastfeeding parents to be exempt from jury duty. Because Klein was not an employee of the court, they couldn’t help. She contacted the Washington Attorney General’s office, her city council member, and her state representatives.
“My husband and I lived in DC for seven years, so we know more than your average bear about legislative processes,” Klein says.
Still, crickets. Nobody got back to her. Despite the fact that 20 other states have laws that excuse breastfeeding jurors from jury duty.
Her next step was the one that broke through: “I was texting all my friends: ’Can you believe this? Like, this is so yuck. I can’t believe this happened. I’m horrified.’ Among those friends was PEPS, the Seattle-based nonprofit parent support organization that has been there for Klein since her first child’s birth.
‘We hear you, we see you’
The response from PEPS Executive Director Dana Guy was swift.
“PEPS was immediately supportive in their response to me, even though they didn’t have a solution,” Klein said. “Dana told me ‘we’ve already contacted our legislative consultant and she’s gonna look into this.’
“When Ellie reached out to PEPS about her experience, our first response was to listen and let her know we were so sorry this had happened, and that it wasn’t okay,” Guy says. “We shared her story with our Advocacy Workgroup and did some initial research to better understand how other states were handling jury duty for breastfeeding parents.
“We learned that more than 20 states already exempt breastfeeding parents from jury service or allow it to be postponed,” Dana says.
A year later, in 2024, the PEPS legislative consultant invited Klein to testify in Olympia on Senate Bill 5217, legislation that would, among other things, excuse breastfeeding parents from jury duty for the first year after birth. Legislative consultants from PEPS and MomsRising coached her through the process, reviewed her testimony, and helped Klein frame it in the way that felt right to her.
“I had never testified before. How do I address this legislative body? And what do I say,” Klein says.
A law is passed
Senate Bill 5217 was overwhelmingly approved by lawmakers in April and signed into law in May. The measure’s start date is January 1, 2027. According to the language of the final bill report, “A person who is breastfeeding or expressing breast milk for an infant under 24 months old may request to delay or be excused from jury service if the person attests that they are unable to serve for this reason. A court is required to grant this request.”
Start by sharing your story
Both Klein and Guy understand why parents may shy away from fighting for the changes they want to see in the city, county, or state.
“Parents today are carrying a lot, and that’s a big reason advocacy can feel out of reach. Many parents are balancing work, caregiving, and financial pressure, among other things, so taking on one more thing can feel overwhelming,” says Guy. But she hopes Klein’s story reminds parents that their actions can make a difference for other parents.
The thing that really stands out to me about Ellie’s story is how it began,” Guy says. “It didn’t start in the legislature; it started with her having a space to share her story. She sent a text message to her [PEPS parent group] because they were people she trusted, with whom she was used to sharing the highs and lows of parenting. Because of that trust, she didn’t have to minimize her experience or question whether it mattered.
Connect first then act
“That’s the ripple effect of community. When parents have space to share honestly, they build confidence, realize they’re not alone, and are more willing to speak up, not just for themselves but for others too,” Guy adds. “Ellie’s courage helped turn a deeply personal experience into a change that will improve lives for breastfeeding parents across Washington State.
What advice does Klein have for parents who feel they should speak up for change or get involved in the legislative process? First, she hopes parents will stand up for what they believe in—” it’s easier than you think.” Second, she’s a strong advocate for parents joining PEPS, both for personal parenting support and to broaden their voices on issues that matter to them.
“The first thing I heard from PEPS is, ‘we hear you, and we see you, and it is just very comforting to know that beyond my personal friend group, there was some entity with some amount of power and influence who would put this issue on their radar,” Klein said. “They were by my side every step of the way.”
What she learned is that the steps along the way were not hard: Making her voice heard “was easier than I thought,” Klein says.
