Won't somebody think of the children?

 It seems we can't think of anything else, usually in grossly political terms.

Abbott Laboratories, one of only two companies in the US manufacturing formula and baby food, shut down its facility in Sturgis, Michigan, in February after contaminated products caused the death of two infants and sickened several others.  The company says it will be another six to eight weeks before they can begin shipping again.  Low-income families are especially affected because Abbott was the exclusive supplier to agencies administering the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.  Rationing by some stores and empty shelves in many states are a nightmare for millions.  The mess is made worse by lingering supply chain problems making it hard to obtain ingredients.

Malnourished children are nothing new for the richest country in world history, which may be why red-state governors have decided this is THE campaign issue of the year.  Not promising to pay attention to the needs of the poor or anything but blaming Biden and those baby-killing Democrats.  Did you know they're taking nutrition away from white American babies and giving it to "illegal" brown people?  If you didn't, you will.  "Joe Biden continues to put America LAST by shipping pallets of baby formula to the southern border as American families face empty shelves," squawks Elise Stefanik.  (That's when Joe's not siphoning water out of the Colorado River and selling it to France.)  Greg Abbott (no connection, we hope) seized on another way to demonize asylum seekers, issuing an OFFICIAL STATEMENT about "our most vulnerable, precious Texans" -- please use the airsick bags stored in front of your seat -- and the wickedness of sacrificing them to babies who can't even speak English.  For his part, Biden acknowledged that the crisis could have been averted "if we'd been better mind readers" and hinted he might have to use the Defense Production Act.  Calls himself a president and he doesn't even blame China?

By way of researching this (yeah, I do) I looked into the local WIC and found they have an office at Fort Stewart, Georgia, home of the Third Infantry Division ("Rock of the Marne!").  Is it conceivable that serving members of the American military need help feeding their children?  Well, what do you think?

It's right-wing dogma that Democrats hate babies.  They don't want them to be born to girls of thirteen who were raped by an uncle; they don't want them to be neglected and abused because their parents (usually just mothers) can't provide for them; they don't want them to have to grow up in places like Satartia, Mississippi, where a carbon dioxide pipeline that ruptured last year poisoned dozens of people; they don't want politicians deciding what they can read or what they can be taught about science, history and even math; they don't want them to inherit a planet that is no longer viable.  To that end, millions of people in all fifty states are in the streets to demand that the government stay the hell out of their medical decisions.  I'm not saying they're all Democrats, but I don't see any MAGA hats or Confederate flags.