About 30 women, children and fathers held a "nurse-in" at the Delta check-in counter at Albuquerque International Sunport, joining the New Mexico woman who said she was kicked off a flight last month for breast-feeding her child.

Emily Gillette of Española, whose complaint about the airline has sparked protests at airports nationwide, said she came to the protest this morning in Albuquerque to show her gratitude for those who supported her.

"This is all about women everywhere deciding to get out and support a concept," she said.

Gillette said her removal from a flight in Burlington, Vt., made her feel ashamed, helpless and awful.

"When women are harassed for breast-feeding, a woman can end up feeling ashamed and she shouldn't," she said, tears forming in her eyes.

Gillette, 27, filed a complaint earlier this month against Delta Air Lines and its commuter partner Freedom Airlines over the Oct. 13 incident at Burlington International Airport. Gillette said she was breast-feeding daughter River, 1, aboard the New York-bound plane when a flight attendant tried to hand her a blanket and told her to cover up.

Gillette was in the second-to-last row, in a window seat, with her husband beside her, she said.

When Gillette balked, she and her husband were ordered off the plane before takeoff, triggering a complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission, a "nurse-in" earlier this month at that airport and now the "national nurse-in."

Self-proclaimed "lactivists" planned to breast-feed their infants at Delta Air Lines ticket counters around the nation today.

Protesters want airlines to review their breast-feeding policies and Congress to pass protections for breast-feeding women in the workplace, said Elizabeth Boepple of Manchester, Vt., a lawyer and one of the protest organizers.

A Delta spokesman says women can breast-feed on any Delta plane.

But Gillette said she will push her case until the airline issues that policy in writing. A company spokesman said Monday that Delta has no plans to do so.

The case is another chapter in the debate pitting nursing mothers' rights against notions of propriety. Public nudity remains largely forbidden: Janet Jackson's bared breast during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show sparked national outrage. At the same time, researchers have established that breast-feeding delivers considerable long-term health benefits for infants and mothers.

To date, 38 states have laws protecting a woman's right to breast-feed at restaurants, malls and other public places.

Studies have shown that breast milk gives infants lasting protection against colds, flu, infections and pneumonia, while possibly reducing the likelihood of obesity, which can lead to heart disease and diabetes. Nursing also helps mothers lose pregnancy weight quickly.

Nonetheless, every few months, a breast-feeding controversy seems to erupt somewhere in the United States. In July, activists protested after Victoria's Secret stores in Massachusetts and Wisconsin kicked out women for breast-feeding.

Last year, Barbara Walters said on ABC's "The View" that a breast-feeding woman on a flight she had taken made her feel awkward. Activists, with babies in tow, showed up in force outside ABC News headquarters in New York City days later.

Freedom Airlines, which operated the commuter flight for Delta, has said Gillette was offered a chance to reboard the plane and declined it. The female flight attendant involved has been disciplined. The company says its policy is to allow breast-feeding on planes.

Gillette said she hopes Delta will create a policy that will protect women.

Emilee Holt-Staffeld, 38, of Santa Fe, joined the protest with her 2-year-old baby, Declan, with a sign pinned to his carrier that read, "Don't want to see me breast-feed? Please feel free to cover your head with a blanket."

She said a blanket can make babies feel claustrophobic and that her son has never felt comfortable nursing with a blanket over his head.