BOSTON — An appeals court cleared the way Friday for a Harvard student to receive extra break time during a lengthy medical licensing exam so she can pump breast milk for her infant daughter.
The state Appeals Court refused to overturn a decision issued by a single justice of the court last week allowing Sophie Currier, 33, an extra 60 minutes of break time.
Currier is scheduled to take the nine-hour exam over two days next week, but the National Board of Medical Examiners planned to appeal to the state Supreme Judicial Court, said the board’s attorney, Joseph Savage Jr.
Currier sued after the national board said she could have only the standard 45 minutes of break time.
Last week, Judge Gary Katzmann of the Appeals Court ruled in favor of Currier, saying she needs the extra break time to pump breast milk to feed her 5-month-old baby. Katzmann said if she didn’t get the extra time, she would not be on “equal footing” with men and nonlactating women who take the test.
Ignoring the need to pump could cause her significant pain, Katzmann said.
The board, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit corporation, is responsible for administering the test used by boards of medicine across the country to license physicians. It has said it must be consistent in the amount of break time given to all test-takers and that other nursing mothers who have taken the exam found 45 minutes sufficient.
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