NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/alt/politics/election/25171

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From: [e-mail] (Clinton/Gore '92)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections,alt.politics.clinton
Subject: CLINTON: We must free science and medicine from the grasp of politics
Date: 25 Jan 1993 21:00:36 -0500
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                          THE WHITE HOUSE

                   Office of the Press Secretary

 ______________________________________________________________
 For Immediate Release                       January 22, 1993

                     REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
             DURING SIGNING OF PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDA

                        The Roosevelt Room


 3:22 P.M. EST


      THE PRESIDENT:  Please sit down, ladies and gentlemen.

      Today I am acting to separate our national health and
 medical policy from the divisive conflict over abortion.  This
 conflict, which stems from the Roe v. Wade decision of 20 years
 ago has brought to a halt promising research on treatment for
 serious conditions and diseases that affect millions of Americans
 -- millions of American men, women and children who include the
 members of my family and friends of mine and I'm sure virtually
 every other set of family and friends in the United States.

      We must free science and medicine from the grasp of politics
 and give all Americans access to the very latest and best medical
 treatments.

      Today I am directing Secretary of Health and Human Services
 Shalala immediately to lift the moratorium on federal funding for
 research involving transplantation of fetal tissue.
 This moratorium, which was first imposed in 1988, was extended
 indefinitely in 1989 despite the recommendation of a blue ribbon
 National Institute of Health advisory panel that it be ended.
 Five years later, the evidence is overwhelming.  The moratorium
 has dramatically limited the development of possible treatment
 for millions of individuals who suffer from serious disorders,
 including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and
 leukemia.  We must let medicine and science proceed unencumbered
 by anti-abortion politics.

      Today also marks the beginning of a new national
 reproductive health policy that aims to prevent unintended
 pregnancies.  Our administration is committed to providing the
 kind of prenatal care, child care and family and medical leave
 that will lead to healthy childbearing and support America's
 families.

      As a nation, our goal should be to protect individual
 freedom while fostering responsible decision-making, an approach
 that seeks to protect the right to choose while reducing the
 number of abortions.  Our vision should be of an America where
 abortion is safe and legal, but rare.

      Let me also say that our administration is particularly
 concerned with the epidemic of teenage pregnancy.  The greatest
 human cost of our continuing national debate over reproductive
 policy is borne by our children and by their children.  A few
 teenagers choose to have and raise children, and we must help
 them to succeed.   But for millions a teen pregnancy is
 unintended, leaving the young woman and her partner totally
 unprepared for the responsibilities of parenthood.  The social
 and economic price paid today and for the last several years by
 our nation is enormous.

      So today I am also directing Secretary Shalala to act
 immediately to implement her intended suspension of the Title X
 family planning regulations that are also known as the "gag
 rule."  For almost five years, HHS has prohibited Title X
 recipients from providing their patients with full information
 and counseling concerning pregnancy.

      This dangerous restriction censors the medical information
 and advice that health care professionals can give their
 patients.  As a result of today's action, every woman will be
 able to receive medical advice and referrals that will not be
 censored or distorted by ideological arguments that should not be
 a part of medicine.

      I'm also ordering today the Director of the Agency for
 International Development to repeal immediately what has become
 known as the Mexico City policy, that has effectively applied the
 "gag rule" to organizations that receive United States funding,
 even when those organizations uses non-AID funds for those
 activities.

      Today's actions will allow organizations that received AID
 funds to provide information regarding all family planning
 options to individuals in foreign nations.  It will reverse a
 policy that has seriously undermined much needed efforts to
 promote safe and effective family planning programs abroad, and
 will allow us to once again provide leadership in helping to
 stabilize world population.  Many believe that this is one of the
 most important environmental steps we can take.

      Today I am also directing Secretary of Defense Aspin to lift
 immediately the near total ban on abortions at United States
 military facilites and to permit them to be performed at those
 facilities provided that the procedure is paid for entirely with
 private funds.

      This action will allow military hospitals to perform
 abortions and to reverse a ban that has adversly affected the
 lives of scores of men and women who serve our nation around the
 world, or members of their families.

      Finally, I am directing Secretary Shalala to instruct the
 Food and Drug Administration to determine whether the current
 import ban on the drug Mifepristone, commonly known as RU-486, is
 justified and to rescind the ban if there is no basis for it.

      Here in the United States, RU-486 has been held hostage to
 politics.  It is time to learn the truth about what the health
 and safety risks of the drug really are.  If the FDA removes the
 ban, Americans will be able to bring the drug into the country
 for their personal use consistant with existing FDA policy that
 govern drugs not approved for distribution.

      I've also ordered HHS to immediately explore the propriety
 of promoting testing in the United States as well as the
 possiblity of licsensing and manufacturing according to the
 standards which govern all other drugs so reviewed by our
 government.

      Taken as a group, today's actions will go a long way toward
 protecting vital medical and health decisions from ideological
 and political debate.  The American people deserve the best
 medical treatment in the world.  We're committed to providing
 with nothing less.

      I'd like to say in closing a special word of personal thanks
 to the unbelievable number of Americans from all walks of life
 and all different political perspectives who have children with
 diabetes or who, like me, have lost relatives to Alzheimer's, or
 have friends suffering with Parkinson's and other diseases who
 came up to me over the last year and made a personal plea on the
 fetal tissue issue.  Their statements to me and their life
 stories had a far greater impact on me even than the actions of
 the United States Congress, which included, as you know, a very
 broad spectrum of Republicans and Democrats on this issue.

      I'd like now to sign these directives.

      (Presidential Memoranda is signed.)

      THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)

      Q    Mr. President, was it "William J." or "Bill"?

      THE PRESIDENT:  After a considered policy debate --
 (laughter) -- we decided that I should sign my full name to all
 official documents of the government, and I'll continue to sign
 all my non -- my letters, Bill Clinton.

      Q    Let me ask you -- George was having a really hard time
 explaining to us what you knew about Zoe Baird's problem, when
 you knew it.  Can you please explain that to us, so that the
 American public would really know?

      THE PRESIDENT:  No, I want to answer this.  I think the
 American people are entitled to know that -- if you go back to my
 statement, I acknowledged that there were errors in the
 evaluation process, for which I take full responsibility.  What
 happened was this.  She voluntarily disclosed that; it was not in
 any way picked up in the vetting.  It was, as you know, we were
 trying to make a Christmas deadline, which was probably my error,
 again, on this.

      So just before she was announced, but after I had discussed
 the appointment with her, I was told that this matter had come
 up.  Nobody said anything to me about the taxes.  And what I was
 told was what you heard, in a very cursory way, was that an error
 had been made in the hiring of an illegal alien; that it had been
 made after consulting a lawyer, who was an expert in this area.
 So, basically, they had acted on counsel's advice.  But they were
 wrong, they moved immediately to try to correct it, and the
 status had been corrected in terms of the legality of the person;
 and that the vettor's conclusion was there would be no problem.

      I have to tell you that during the course of these
 inquiries, I received other "weightier warnings," if you will, of
 things which had to be worked through with other potential
 nominees.  In retrospect, what I should have done is to basically
 delay the whole thing for a couple of days and look into it in
 greater depth.

      But that was -- I take full responsibility for that.  It is
 in no way -- this process is in no way a reflection on her.  We
 would not have known any of this had she not disclosed it to us
 and to the United States Senate subseqently.  So I will say again
 what I said this morning:  I'm sorry about this.  I still think
 she is an extraordinary person and a very able person who will
 have a rich and successful career, and I take full responsibility
 for what happened in the review process.

      Thank you.  (Applause.)



                                END                  3:30 P.M. EST