Abbott Makes Working Mother Magazine's List of the '100 Best Companies for
               Working Mothers' for the Fifth Consecutive Year

ABBOTT PARK, Ill., Sept. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Four decades after the first working moms appeared on television, corporate America has come a long way toward learning how to keep up with the changing needs of moms in today's workforce. Few companies have come farther than the 100 employers heralded on this year's list of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers published by Working Mother magazine.

For new moms returning to work or parents dealing with family crises, Abbott's flexible work options -- offering everything from part time, flex time and job shares -- help many employees transition back to work more easily.

"After my son got sick, I needed to pull him out of day care, drop down to part time and work from home a few days a week to care for him," said Ann Widman, director, HR Communications. "Abbott gave me the flexibility I needed to take care of my family. There was no stigma associated with going part time or working from home. In fact, I was promoted during this time."

"We salute Abbott for their efforts on behalf of working mothers, and for making the 100 Best for the fifth time," said Carol Evans, CEO of Working Mother Media. "It is my hope that other companies around the country learn from the best and experience first-hand the value of flexibility as a business imperative."

Lauded for its health and wellness programs, free lactation consulting, on-site child care and widely used flexible work options, Abbott continues to meet the needs of working moms year after year.

"We are gratified to receive this recognition for our continued efforts to make Abbott a great place to work," said Miles D. White, chairman and chief executive officer, Abbott. "Our intent is to provide our employees with what they need to excel in their careers and to help them better integrate work and home life. Having successful and satisfied employees enables us to better fulfill our mission of bringing medical advances to patients worldwide."

Abbott Offers Numerous Programs for Expectant Parents

For soon-to-be working moms, Abbott helps to alleviate some of the stress and questions that arise during pregnancy by offering on-site classes for expectant parents, a free referral program to locate area child care providers and flexible spending accounts to set aside pre-tax money for paying child care costs. In addition to its own on-site child care center, the largest in Illinois, Abbott offers employee discounts to three of the nation's largest child care providers -- KinderCare, La Petite and Children's World. Parents not enrolled at Abbott's center also benefit from the company's on-site backup care program that helps parents when their child care provider is unexpectedly unavailable.

About Working Mother's 100 Best List

Working Mother's 20th annual list of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers," a benchmark for work/life practices in corporate America, appears in the magazine's October issue and is now available on its Internet site, http://www.workingmother.com . To apply for the list companies complete a 550-question application, the most rigorous of its kind, which analyzes the availability, tracking and usage of programs to support working mothers, the accountability of managers to implement programs and the successful advancement of women into top paying jobs, board positions and management ranks. The list is based upon options and benefits companies provide for child care support, work flexibility, work/life balance, adoption assistance, leave for new parents, percentage of women in the workforce and advancement of women.

About Abbott

In addition to being recognized amongst the country's best employers for working moms, Abbott (NYSE: ABT) has been included on FORTUNE magazine's list of the 50 Best Companies for Minorities for many years and has widely recognized by Scientist magazine and others as a top employer for scientists.

Abbott is a global, broad-based health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceuticals and medical products, including nutritionals, devices and diagnostics. The company employs more than 60,000 people and markets its products in more than 130 countries.

Abbott's news releases and other information are available on the company's Web site at http://www.abbott.com .

SOURCE  Abbott
    -0-                             09/12/2005
    /CONTACT:  Julie Ferguson, +1-847-936-6116, or +1-847-772-5636 (Cellular),
or Elizabeth Hoff, +1-847-935-4236, both of Abbott/
    /Company News On-Call:  http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/110328.html /
    /Web site:  http://www.abbott.com
                http://www.workingmother.com /
    (ABT)

CO:  Abbott; Working Mother
ST:  Illinois
IN:  MTC BIO HEA MAG PUB
SU:  AWD WOM

JR-AM
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8956 09/12/2005 08:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com