What an excellent idea:
All expectant mothers are to be given a one-off payment of around £120
that they will be encouraged to spend on fresh fruit and vegetables as
a way of protecting their children from diseases and incurable
conditions later in life.
…
The payment – the first by a government that is allied to a specific
health target – would be given to women when they are seven months
pregnant. It would be linked to them receiving professional health
advice on how to maintain a proper balanced diet, and give up drinking
and smoking.
Let’s splash a few tens of millions, ooooh, say, £70 or £80 million in fact, on some eyecatching initiative that won’t in fact do any damn good. The part of pregnancy where women need to be very careful about vitamins, booze and fags is during the time that the embryo is developing, not when it is developed and growing (might have the words wrong there but I mean while the nervous system is connecting etcetc, rather than simply getting bigger).
So, let’s give them the money for such things in the 7 th month, when the embryo is pretty much fully developed and is in fact only growing in size. Excellent idea, don’t you think?
I wonder if anyone else is as cynical as I am: the reason for not offering it earlier is that any earlier than 24 weeks and someone can take the money and then have an abortion. Or is that too, too cynical?
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