SIRBU GOLDSTEIN POGREBIN

Heidi Goldstein, right, nurses her two and a half-year-old daughter, Katy Thomason while talking with Amy Berry Pogrebin, second from right, about the upcoming breastfeeding record attempt, at a health clinic in Berkeley, Calif., Tuesday July 30, 2002. At left is Ellen Sirbu, organizer who is bringing together Berkeley women to break a world record and promote awareness of breastfeeding by having hundreds of moms nurse simultaneously. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

(ERIC RISBERG)

After New Hampshire State Rep. Amanda Bouldin wrote a Facebook post expressing her opposition to a bill that would make it illegal for women to expose their breasts in public, two fellow lawmakers -- both male -- made crass comments that are receiving national attention.

Bouldin, a Democrat, wrote of the proposal on her personal Facebook account, "YES, all the sponsors are men. And Republicans. So much for 'smaller government,'" according to the New York Daily News.

Rep. Josh Moore, a Republican sponsor of the bill, responded.

"If it's a woman's natural inclination to pull her nipple out in public and you support that, than (sic) you should have no problem with a mans inclantion (sic) to stare at it and grab it," Moore wrote. "After all ... It's ALL relative and natural, right?"

Bouldin took a screenshot of the comment Moore later deleted, the Huffington Post reports.

State Rep. Al Baldasaro, also a supporter of the bill, added to the social media conversation.

"Amanda, no disrespect, but your nipple would be the last one I would want to see," Baldasaro wrote. "You want to turn our family beach's (sic) into a pervert show ... Some of us liberty minded Reps do beleive (sic) in family values."

The Huffington Post reached Baldasaro for comment following the heated exchange. The lawmaker defended his statements.

"I stand by what I said," he told the Huffington Post. "You're damn right it would be the last one I want to see. I'm a happily married guy."

As it stands, it's legal for both men and women to be topless in public in New Hampshire. The proposed legislation would bar women from showing their nipples, and both genders from exposing genitals.

The bill was created in response to the national "Free the Nipple" campaign, "which aims to empower women and normalize female breasts in the same way men's nipples are publicly acceptable," The Huffington Post said.

The movement has seen traction locally. Worcester resident Stacey Schnee, former spokeswoman the Massachusetts chapter of Topless Equality, made a political statement in 2013 by walking and biking around the city with no shirt or bra on.

Schnee, who was born a man, underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2011 and a breast augmentation in 2012.

Schnee told MassLive that if women can legally go topless, it will reduce sexism.

"As we see a gain in allowing a woman's right to be and live topless, you will see more body acceptance and healthy women," she said.