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REMARKS BY:      DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN  
                            SERVICES
PLACE:           National Women's Political Caucus Convention    
                 Nashville, Tennessee 
DATE:            August 5, 1995

As we celebrate this special 75th anniversary, I speak for women around the country when I say thank you to my friend, Harriet Woods.

I came here for Harriet. I came here to thank her for all of us -- not only for the torch of leadership she has carried at the Caucus.

Harriet, you may remember the elections you lost. We will remember the victories you won for all of us...forever.

I also want to recognize that great Hunter grad, the very Honorable Bella Abzug, who -- armed with fiery passion and commitment, and, of course, her notorious hats -- has cleared pathway after pathway for all of us.

And, of course, I can't begin my remarks without paying a special tribute to my friend, Liz Carpenter.

This is a woman whose words are laced with wit and eloquence; a woman whose 70s are filled with perseverance and parenthood; and, a woman who, through the years, has taught all of us: Never, ever, lose your sense of humor!

With that in mind, I like the story of the Congresswoman who was running for office back in the early 70s.

Then, as now, gut-wrenching issues were gripping this country, like the Vietnam War, the women's movement, and the struggle for civil rights.

But, at Rotary Club after Rotary Club, after she had finished an impassioned speech about her vision for our country, someone in the audience would ask the inevitable question:

"But what do you do with your children during the day?"

Taking her cues from Liz, this woman simply replied: "Well, my husband and I get up very early -- about 6:00 a.m. We bathe and dress the children and feed them a wonderful breakfast. Then, we put them in the freezer; leave for work; and when we come home, we defrost them and we all have a lovely dinner together!!"

We've come a long way since then -- but not far enough.

Sixteen years ago, at the Caucus convention in Cincinnati, I sat where you sit today and listened attentively as Patricia Robert Harris -- then the Secretary of HUD and soon to be Secretary of HHS -- delivered a moving call to arms.

Like Pat, I now sit with the Cabinet and Congress at the State of the Union and dream and work for the day in the next century when the Speaker of the House is addressed as Madam Speaker -- and she introduces...Madam President.

We have traveled great distances since that day in July of 1979. We have taken many steps forward and some backward.

Seared in our collective memories is the spectacle -- the absolute spectacle -- of an all-male Judiciary Committee trying to deal with the issue of sexual harassment.

Today, two women serve on that committee.

Before the 1992 election, Nancy Kassebaum and Barbara Mikulski were the only women in the Senate.

As Dianne Feinstein explained: "Two percent is fine for milk -- but not for the U.S. Senate!"

Today, women in the Senate number eight Republicans and Democrats alike -- and, because of your work, we are growing.

In 1979, we had 16 women in the House. Today we have 47.

We've doubled the number of women in state legislatures and more than tripled the number of women mayors.

These are tremendous gains.

But, pundits continue to come back and ask us if anything has really changed -- if it's made a difference to have the Clintons and Gores in the White House?"

And, I answer with an unequivocal yes -- yes, it does.

Not too long ago, when George Bush and Ronald Reagan roamed the halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, their answers to policies that empowered women was to use their veto and "just say no."

"No" to the Family and Medical Leave Act.

"No" to overturning the Gag Rule.

And, "no" to repealing the Hyde Amendment -- so that we could help victims -- I repeat victims -- of rape and incest!

And, what did President Clinton do in his first two weeks in office?

In his "spare" time, he repealed the Gag rule. He overturned the ban on RU-486. He reversed the ban on abortions at military hospitals.

And, after seven years of White House indifference, he signed the Family and Medical Leave Act and made it the law of the land.

Still, they ask me, has this President made a difference?

The statistics speak for themselves:

Seven women hold Cabinet level positions today -- including the "first" woman Attorney General, the first woman National Economic Advisor, the first woman Secretary of Energy, and the first woman Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

I come today in their names: Reno, O'Leary, Browner, Rivlin, Tyson, Albright and our White House sisters Herman, Rasco, Williams, Fleming, Hale, Verveer, Matsui, Higgins, and Myers. And, in a class by themselves, two extraordinary women - Hillary Rodham Clinton and Tipper Gore.

In just two years, the President has nominated 250 percent more women to judicial posts than his predecessors did in the previous twelve years combined.

A full 53 percent of our appointees have been women and minorities -- from the district court to the Supreme Court.

And, through it all, he's worked to transform so-called women's issues into what they really are: America's issues. Family issues.

I'm talking about signing the historic Violence Against Women Act.

I'm talking about giving women soldiers access to more than 250,000 positions in the military that were previously reserved only for men.

I'm talking about ending an era of sexism in biomedical research, increasing funding for breast cancer, and paying particular attention to the growing tragedy of AIDS in women.

And, I'm talking about making our quest for equality an international issue -- by expanding it across barriers of countries, cultures, and oceans.

So, has this President made a real difference -- a positive difference in women's lives? Yes, he has.

Have we taken giant steps forward? Yes, we have.

But even as we celebrate these accomplishments, are we in danger of losing precious ground? You bet we are.

In 1979, Secretary Harris warned us that "We will be ridiculed and parodied, because if our cause is right and cannot be destroyed, those who oppose our cause will seek to destroy our credibility."

Let's ask Anita Hill whether that is still true today.

A Wasserman cartoon sums it all up.

It shows two men on barstools -- looking fairly depressed and dejected.

"So, we're angry white men?" one asks.

"Yeah," his counterpart answers, "Corporations are cutting our pay, exporting our jobs and laying us off!"

"So, we're angry at corporations?"

"No," says the second man, barely able to contain his rage: "HILLARY CLINTON!"

But, the assaults on women today go much deeper than character attacks -- they go to the core of everything we have achieved.

It was right here, 75 years ago, that we guaranteed that our voices would be heard through the bullhorn of the ballot.

Since that day, our history has been a steady march of progress -- as year by year, in many different ways, we have climbed new mountains, and secured new rights.

How ironic, then, that we must gather back here today -- at this place and this time -- to talk about one of the biggest threats to our progress ever launched in history.

I'm not talking about an isolated attack. I'm talking about a systematic assault -- to turn back the clock and bring back the days of darkness.

Just look at the issue of welfare reform.

We believe that welfare ought to be about helping people get jobs -- and keep them.

Unfortunately, there are some in Congress and Statehouses who want to use this issue to divide our country, point fingers at the vulnerable, and leave children out in the cold.

And, that's wrong.

When they refer to women on welfare as "wolves" devouring our resources -- stigmatizing poor women and blaming the victim -- we must say "no."

When they punish poor children for their parents mistakes -- we must say "no."

And, when they take away the tools women need -- like child care, training and education -- to get off welfare and stay off, when they destroy safety net, when they refuse to raise the minimum wage, we will say "no."

But they don't stop there. They also tried to abandon our 26-year commitment to family planning.

Abolishing family planning services reminds me of the old saying that the only difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

There is simply no limit to the stupidity of taking away health care services that help women prevent unplanned pregnancies, prevent abortions, and prevent diseases.

They would take us back to the days when Margaret Sanger had to walk the tenements of New York City -- dispensing birth control from her purse because no one else would?

We cannot take our country back to the days of back alley abortions -- the days of desperation, disfigurement, and sometimes even death.

We cannot -- and we will not.

But, there are some in Washington and State Houses who disagree.

They think its a good idea to bring back the Hyde Amendment -- a fundamental injustice to victims of rape and incest.

They think its a good idea to ban abortions at military hospitals so that members of the service and their families are cut off -- financially and geographically -- from health services.

And, they think its a good idea to reinstate the ban on abortion coverage for women who happen to work for the federal government.

You can't tell a woman that she has a fundamental right to choose -- and then throw up roadblocks that make it impossible for her to exercise that right.

Last I checked, Roe v. Wade was the law of the land -- and, it must stay that way. It will stay that way.

And then there's their reckless plan to cut Medicare and Medicaid by $450 billion over seven years -- in order to finance that big tax cut for the wealthy.

Make no mistake about it, these cuts are bitter medicine for every American woman and family. It is time to wake up America.

Too many of our sisters and our mothers and our daughters don't know that these cuts add up to something truly radical -- a blind-side charge on our hard-won rights and our much-needed health security.

We're the ones who make up almost 60 percent of the Medicare and Medicaid population -- more than 30 million women strong.

We're the ones whose life expectancy is almost seven years longer than men's.

We're the ones who typically rely on home care to stay out of a nursing home.

And we're the ones who are more likely to end up quitting our jobs and becoming fulltime caregivers if -- God forbid -- one of our loved ones gets tossed out of a nursing home because of the GOP's cruel new plan.

They say the cuts won't hurt a bit -- but the numbers speak for themselves.

By the year 2002, the typical retired couple would pay $1,250 more in out-of pocket costs.

The nursing home resident would pay $1,400 more.

The senior with home health care would pay $1,700 more.

They want to replace our system of guaranteed health care with a worthless piece of paper called a voucher.

And they want to take away our choice of doctor -- a choice that is especially important to women.

The stakes are high -- and our voices must be heard.

We must tell them, you must not take the "care" out of Medicare.

You must not take the "aid" out of Medicaid.

And you will not use our Trust Fund as your slush fund.

It's 1995 -- the drawn of a new century. We will not go back.

We will not go back to the day when women didn't get prenatal care if we were too poor to pay.

We will not go back to the day when seniors had to choose between eating and getting decent health care.

We will not go back to the day when our grandmothers brought bags of apples to pay the doctor.

The future of Medicare and Medicaid is about nothing less than our future as women. It's about every family's security -- and the future of our country.

The President has shown that it is possible to balance the budget, retain choice, protect the Trust Fund, and improve Medicare.

He has challenged us to be a great and generous nation -- and to be smart enough to fix a trust fund without breaking a trust.

This is not a choice between left and right. This is choice between right and wrong.

This is more than a choice between moving forward or falling back. This is a choice between life and death.

There is not a person in this room who has not made enormous personal and professional sacrifices for the cause of equality and opportunity.

Yes, I know many of you are battle weary. So am I. Yes, I know, I am preaching to the choir. But this is the choir that made a nation listen before -- and you will again. We will again.

Because, as Secretary Harris said that day in Cincinnati, "Our goal of full equality is still well ahead of us."

So, on this 75th anniversary, we must gird ourselves for one more battle in this century. This is it, sisters, the final assault, their final campaign to destroy the modern American women's movement.

This is not a campaign to destroy feminism.

Our enemies are putting on their armor to end opportunity and decent lives and fairness for waitresses in Topeka and corporate executives in New York.

This is not a class war -- every American family -- rich or poor -- will lose if they win.

This is a fight for hard-working families. It is a fight for our children -- for our daughters and our sons.

It is a fight for old and young -- strong and weak.

It is about race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability.

It's about Asian and African, Native American and Hispanic.

It's about all of us -- Republicans and Democrats.

In 1979, Secretary Harris promised "We will win."

And we will -- we have won before and we will win again.

We will win in the name of women like Alice Paul, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Millie Jeffrey, Bella Abzug, Pat Harris, Liz Carpenter, Gerry Ferraro, Gloria Steinem, Irene Natividad, Harriet Woods, and the countless nameless others -- men and women, Republicans and Democrats -- who opened up the steel doors with their sacrifices and courage in factories and offices and homes.

On battlefields and playing fields they stepped up with us -- so that all of us could walk right through to the dream -- and the opportunity -- of this extraordinary country.

For them and for America we must step up once more, my sisters.

We must step up once more.

Thank you.