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December 26, 2005
Public Health or the Nanny state?
Massachusetts hospitals will no longer give free formula bags
Actually, in poor families, one of the major incentives for bottle feeding is the 'free' (taxpayer provided) formula provided by WIC. And I was struck by a story from Hurricane Katrina, where a mom gave birth at home with only her boyfriend in attendance, and the boyfriend went to the hospital looking for formula.....
Another thought that came to my mind reading this was that the SCOTUS declared that advertising (at least political ads) were a protected form of free speech. I wonder what would happen if the formula companies were to appeal this legislation as a first amendment issue. The USA is one of the few countries that did not sign on to the WHO code restricting formula marketing.
I have been boycotting Nestle foods for nearly 30 years now over formula marketing issues.
Posted by alicia at December 26, 2005 5:35 PM
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Comments
Advertising isn't free speech. It's *paid* speech. Newspapers and televisions don't offer free thirty-second/full page spots to everyone to just come onboard and make suggestions about how other people ought to live. If it was, they'd have a point. Since it's not, they should go back to their protected paid speech and run more formula ads rather than wasting everyone's time and their money with a lawsuit. *sigh*
We just started boycotting Nestle recently.
Posted by: Jane Lebak at December 27, 2005 9:12 AM
He went to the hospital looking for formula? Lord have Mercy.
We have a photo of our cat drinking that prepackaged formula stuff when we brought oldest DS home from the hospital. That's my best plan for formula, tee hee.
Posted by: Mimi at December 27, 2005 2:00 PM