On the heels of wave of state laws requiring doctors to provide and narrate ultrasounds and spout state-mandated speeches about medically dubious consequences of abortion comes the new policy regarding use and distribution of baby formula
Comments
I think you nailed it: “The answer lies in a First Amendment liberty of the patient not to be compelled to listen to government-ordered messages, at least within certain conditions, such as the face-to-face intimacy of the doctor-patient relationship ” plus the captive audience aspects you mention.
“But it seems that there will be ways for government to gets its message (whether about abortion or the benefits of breast milk) across without compelling participation in a one-sided conversation.” Yes. Some 90% of NYC mothers already breastfeed in the hospital, so where’s the vaunted urgent need for this initiative? Certainly if Mayor Bloomberg wants to increase breastfeeding rates, he could give city workers who are nursing mothers paid maternity leave, access to pumping rooms, and protected break times.
“Latch on NY” has certainly created some strange bedfellows – it’s not often I, a left-liberal feminist, find myself in agreement with the Tea Party, but here I sit.
Posted by: hush | Aug 2, 2012 9:06:09 PM
erratum: One reason for these….
Posted by: Patrick S. O’Donnell | Aug 2, 2012 12:49:48 PM
I generally agree with you, and of course some mothers cannot breastfeed (for a variety of reasons). At the hospital where my wife works they have “lactation consultants” that visit each mother and provide information on the documented comparative benefits of breastfeeding (which does not mean that the use of formulas ‘harm’ infants). Some of those benefits are not purely physiological but psychological and emotional and it seems these can occur with the proper use of formula as well. One reason why for these “education” campaigns is that it was thought necessary to counter the well-organized and funded advertising of formula manufacturers, although I think this is less of a problem than it used to be.
Posted by: Patrick S. O’Donnell | Aug 2, 2012 12:48:17 PM