New York Mayor Bloomberg’s nanny state continues unabated. Now Bloomberg, who previously decreed that large soft drinks would be banned. is going to lock up baby formula and force new mothers to plead for it and sit through breastfeeding indoctrination to get it. From Fox News:
Starting Sept. 3, the city will keep tabs on the number of bottles that participating hospitals stock and use — the most restrictive pro-breast-milk program in the nation.
Under the city Health Department’s voluntary Latch On NYC initiative, 27 of the city’s 40 hospitals have also agreed to give up swag bags sporting formula-company logos, toss out formula-branded tchotchkes like lanyards and mugs, and document a medical reason for every bottle that a newborn receives.
Under Latch On NYC, new mothers who want formula won’t be denied it, but hospitals will keep infant formula in out-of-the-way secure storerooms or in locked boxes like those used to dispense and track medications.
With each bottle a mother requests and receives, she’ll also get a talking-to. Staffers will explain why she should offer the breast instead.
Hardly anyone disagrees that breastfeeding is what new babies need, and the formula (while safe and effective) does not match breast milk in providing what babies need. Still, this is the kind of bureaucratic overreach that government control of health care famous that we are in store for.
Your future under Obamacare is playing out right in front of your eyes in New York City…