I don’t have a lot to write here because I’m too outraged. Here are a few lines from the NYT article U.S. Opposition to Breast-Feeding Resolution Stuns World Health Officials:
A resolution to encourage breast-feeding was expected to be approved quickly and easily by the hundreds of government delegates who gathered this spring in Geneva for the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly.
Based on decades of research, the resolution says that mother’s milk is healthiest for children and countries should strive to limit the inaccurate or misleading marketing of breast milk substitutes.
Then the United States delegation, embracing the interests of infant formula manufacturers, upended the deliberations.
As you can read in the article, substantially the U.S. attempted to threaten a bunch of countries, starting with Ecuador, in order to gain opposition to the resolution. Fortunately, the resolution passed without the changes made by the U.S. The article remarks on the surprising intensity with which the U.S. representatives opposed breastfeeding.
This is just another facet of the fight, folks. We’ve got to be scanning 360 degrees to see the way the government is undermining health in ways we wouldn’t expect.
And before this turns into a debate about formula versus breastfeeding, let me state that I of course understand that women may prefer formula to breastfeeding and others are unable to breastfeed. This is instead about the providing mothers with the education and support structure necessary to breastfeed. This is about not allowing Nestle and other companies once again to attempt to completely supplant breastfeeding with their products.
Edit 2: And another thing. So, this happened back in the spring and we’re just hearing about now. That makes me wonder what other damage in the area of women’s and children’s health this administration is attempting to inflict in other intergovernmental agencies.
Edit: H/T to DeRay Mckesson @deray for bringing my attention to the NYT article via Twitter. If you’re not listening to Pod Save the People, you should.
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