This may not seem like a big deal in a first world country. But the movement to discredit breastfeeding internationally has happened before by formula producing companies, and it's truly evil. In countries where clean water is hard to come by, and women are poor, breastfeeding is head and shoulders above any other way to feed a child. When women are encouraged to replace what they can produce themselves safely and for free with formula that they must pay for and mix with water, children start dying of waterborne diseases and malnutrition, as poor families try to stretch their formula supply by watering it down. The UN had finally come close to winning this war of information and education--until Trump.


Washington (CNN)The United States threatened nations in an effort to blunt a World Health Assembly resolution supporting breastfeeding this spring, The New York Times reported Sunday.
The US delegation worked hard, but largely unsuccessfully, to water down a resolution recognizing the importance of breastfeeding for infants and working against misleading attempts to sell substitutes for a mother's milk, the Times reported, citing more than a dozen participants from various countries, many of whom requested anonymity for fear of US retaliation.
The US delegation threatened retribution on trade and military aid to Ecuador to get the nation to drop the resolution, according to the Times, and said at least a dozen countries also avoided the resolution out of fear of the US. Members of the delegation also suggested cutting US funding for the World Health Organization.
Eventually, Russia introduced the resolution, and the US was unable to blunt the measure, although its delegation successfully struck language calling for the international health body to provide technical support for nations seeking to stop "inappropriate promotion of foods for infants and young children," and added the phrase "evidence based" to certain provisions, the Times reported.
The Times noted the US position aligned with infant formula manufacturers. The report said the US delegation was also unsuccessful at defeating a different measure on access to medicines.
A spokesman from the US Department of Health and Human Services told the Times that the original resolution "placed unnecessary hurdles for mothers seeking to provide nutrition to their children."
The State Department declined to comment to the Times, saying it could not remark on private diplomatic discussions.
News of the combative approach within the World Health Assembly mirrored the Trump administration's posture toward other key international bodies. The US said last month that it was leaving the UN Human Rights Council, citing anti-Israel bias, and President Donald Trump has made critiquing the status quo of major international compacts a hallmark of his approach, from trade agreements to military and security partnerships.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/08/politics ... index.html

"The Times noted the US position aligned with infant formula manufacturers. The report said the US delegation was also unsuccessful at defeating a different measure on access to medicines.
A spokesman from the US Department of Health and Human Services told the Times that the original resolution "placed unnecessary hurdles for mothers seeking to provide nutrition to their children."

The greed and corruption of this president and his administration appear to have no boundaries, conscience, or an iota of empathy and they seem overtly proud of it. I do not use the word 'evil' lightly, but try as I might I have not found one redeeming factor in trump or his cohorts - they just get worse and worse.

<Begin sarcasm> Thankfully, RUSSIA was there to save the day! ~ <end sarcasm>

So many thoughts running thru my mind while reading the op ~ but KB's above post almost perfectly identifies my own reaction to this ~ I would add that the intentional cruelty towards all others is breath-taking [and NOT in a good way!] ~

Sooz

I'm convinced there are NO working brain cells amongst all the people associated in any way with the current "admin" ~ ~ "live links" in original ~ Sooz

At health forum, Trump admin accused of ‘blackmail’ over breastfeeding
07/09/18 10:00 AM
By Steve Benen

It sounds like the sort of thing that shouldn’t have been controversial or particularly newsworthy: the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly was poised to approve a resolution to encourage breastfeeding, and backed by decades of scientific research, its proponents expected the measure to pass easily.

The New York Times reported over the weekend on what happened when the delegation from the Trump administration “upended the deliberations” by “embracing the interests of infant formula manufacturers.”


It’s worth pausing to read that again, because it seems like the sort of development that would be literally unbelievable if it occurred in fiction: Trump administration officials made aggressive threats against an ally over a non-binding breastfeeding resolution at the World Health Assembly.

According to the Times’ report, it fell to other countries to champion the measure, but poorer nations “backed off, citing fears of retaliation” from the United States.

Eventually, the delegation from Russia introduced the resolution – and wouldn’t you know it, the officials from the Trump administration were not prepared to threaten officials from Vladimir Putin’s government.

And while the resolution ultimately passed, largely intact, the Americans’ conduct apparently stunned participants at the event, especially after they suggested the United States might cut its support for the World Health Organization.

Patti Rundall, the policy director of the British advocacy group Baby Milk Action, told the Times, “We were astonished, appalled and also saddened…. What happened was tantamount to blackmail, with the U.S. holding the world hostage and trying to overturn nearly 40 years of consensus on best way to protect infant and young child health.”

Taking a step back, we can now add to the list of international agreements and partnerships at which this administration has thumbed its nose at the world.

Just as importantly, Trump World’s record on children and families is increasingly difficult to defend. Obviously, the White House’s “zero tolerance” approach to family separations at the U.S./Mexico border has been the basis for widespread outrage, but let’s not forget that this president has also taken steps to undermine maternity coverage in the health care marketplace, and proposed cuts to the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

At a White House event in May, First Lady Melania Trump said, “Children deserve every opportunity to enjoy their innocence. Every child should know it is safe to make mistakes and that there are supportive adults and friends nearby to catch them if they fall…. I am asking you all to join me in providing support and guidance to our children so that we can make a real difference.”

Ideally, her husband’s administration would start acting like it agreed.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/health-forum-trump-admin-accused-blackmail-over-breastfeeding

While the threats and anti-breast feeding attitude are breath taking in their cruelty they are also indicative of the waning American influence over world affairs. Despite their bluster and threats the resolution was passed largely as first proposed. All the Grabem administration got out of it was another black eye.

Must be something else that got blackened. They ran out of eyes long ago.