Watch out, Bloomie! You’ve got a loathsome nanny-state competitor!

Venezuelan lawmakers are weighing whether to ban the use of baby bottles as part of a push to promote breast-feeding, state media reported.
The proposed measure will be up for debate in the South American country’s National Assembly on Tuesday, lawmaker Odalis Monzon said in an interview with state-run VTV.

“Every baby has the right to breast-feeding,” said Monzon, a lawmaker from the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

In addition to banning bottle-feeding, the proposed revisions to Venezuela’s Law of Promotion and Protection of Breastfeeding also include plans to penalize those who advertise baby formula, she said.

So much for “my body, my choice” when the nanny-staters decide they know what’s best for the baby. Babies have a positive right to your breast milk, and you have an obligation to provide it.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg thus far has been happy to merely strong-arm hospitals into cutting down on formula advertising, bottles, and giveaways. Bottles and formula aren’t banned, but hidden away, and each bottle dispensed at a hospital comes with a lecture. But pioneering Venezuelans just might whet his appetite for a little more nannying:

Mayor Bloomberg is pushing hospitals to hide their baby formula behind locked doors so more new mothers will breast-feed.

Starting Sept. 3, the city will keep tabs on the number of bottles that participating hospitals stock and use — the most restrictive pro-breast-milk program in the nation.

Under the city Health Department’s voluntary Latch On NYC initiative, 27 of the city’s 40 hospitals have also agreed to give up swag bags sporting formula-company logos, toss out formula-branded tchotchkes like lanyards and mugs, and document a medical reason for every bottle that a newborn receives.

I love the use of the word “voluntary.” Ha.

It’s not like Venezuela’s leadership has anything more pressing to worry about:

Venezuela’s National Assembly has backed plans to import 39 million rolls of toilet paper, in an effort to relieve a chronic shortage.

Lawmakers voted to approve a $79m credit for the country’s ministry of commerce, which will also be used to buy toothpaste and soap. …

Visit Venezuela: All of the overbearing, petty intrusiveness of New York City, none of the prosperity. If I were Venezuelan, I’d offer a deal. How ’bout when I no longer need a smart phone app to wipe my butt, you can start legislating ways to wipe it for me.