The Government knows better than you do how you should live your life. At least, it appears that Mayor Busybody, Michael Bloomberg, thinks so. That is the only plausible explanation why he has so persistently undertaken to insinuate government into matters of personal choice. Bloomberg wants to tell you what to eat, what to drink, and, now, what to feed your baby. First he came for the salt and trans fats. Next, he declared war on sugary drinks, and has decided that you shouldn’t be allowed to buy more than 16 ounces of soda at a time. Now, he’s decided that his government is going to coerce new mothers into breastfeeding their newborns. Bloomberg announced recently that before mother’s of newborn’s in New York City hospitals will be forced to endure a lecture from a lactation consultant about the benefits of breast milk before they’ll be given formula to feed their babies while still in the hospital.
I will say upfront that I am familiar, at least passingly, with the science, and the seeming consensus that breast milk has a holy host of benefots for newborn infants. But neither the government nor Mike Bloomberg have any business whatsoever bringing the weight of the city government to bear in coercing mothers to choose one form of feeding over another. Families have the freedom to raise their children as they see fit, and that includes deciding what to feed their babies (or whether to let them have that Big Gulp, when they’re older). Regardless of the benefits of breast milk, the State has no business – zero – in trying to dicate, coerce, or influence mothers. This is a matter purely of pesonal choice, and Bloomberg’s initiative is a gross intrusion on personal liberty.
Make no mistake about it, in a world re-made by the likes of Barack Obama and Mike Bloomberg, we will see more of this kind of nonsense. In the view of these meddlers the State knows better than you do, and the State has the authority to force you to comply with its whims. It will dig its dirty little fingers into every facet of our lives, no matter how personal, if we let it. Its time Mike Bloomberg, and others like him, got the message to keep his grubby mitts off.