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)--