WASHINGTON, April 29--PRNewswire-AsiaNet/InfoQuest
Proposed UN Infant Formula Policy Anti-Woman,
Anti-Mother & Anti-Development
The Independent Women's Forum today announces that it has sent a letter to
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt expressing serious concerns
about United Nations policies that could ultimately lead to a ban on infant
formula throughout much of the world, setting women's development back decades.
"IWF's letter to Secretary Leavitt expresses our serious concerns that the
United Nations is embracing policies that could ultimately lead to a ban on
infant formula," said Nancy M. Pfotenhauer, president of the Independent
Women's Forum. "Infant formula is a safe and excellent form of nutrition for
infants, and an important alternative to breastfeeding given the reality that
many women simply cannot breastfeed due to physical conditions such as HIV/AIDS
infection or workplace obligations."
Highlights of the Open Letter:
* IWF, in agreement with most health professionals, supports
breastfeeding as the preferred method for feeding babies.
* Infant formula has been critical to enabling woman to achieve parity
in the workplace, by creating choice and greater flexibility in infant
nutrition.
* This attack on working women is also an attack on adoptive mothers and
those mothers with physical conditions that make breastfeeding
hazardous, such as women infected with HIV/AIDS.
The United Nations health agency, the World Health Organization is planning
to vote on a resolution that could place black warning labels on infant formula
at the 58th World Health Assembly in Geneva on May 16, 2005.
About Independent Women's Forum
The Independent Women's Forum was established to combat the
women-as-victim, pro-big-government ideology of radical feminism. We seek to
restore, strengthen, and extend that which promotes women's well being by
advancing the principles of self-reliance, political freedom, economic liberty,
and personal responsibility.
SOURCE: Independent Women's Forum
NOTE TO EDITORS:
For additional information and interview requests, please contact:
Louise Filkins at: +1-202-419-1820 or [email protected]
CONTACT: Louise Filkins of Independent Women's Forum,
+1-202-419-1820
--Distributed by AsiaNet (www.asianetnews.net)--