    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [January 29, 1996]
    [Pages 111-113]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Announcing the National Campaign To Reduce Teen Pregnancy
    January 29, 1996

        Thank you, Secretary Shalala, Dr. Foster, to the distinguished
    American citizens who are here behind me, and all of you who are out
    here with them. I thank the Members of Congress who are here: Senator
    Pell, Senator Murray, Senator Chafee, Congresswoman Clayton, and
    Congressman Stokes. Thank you all for being here and for your interest
    in this important issue.
        In the State of the Union Address I said that I felt our country was
    facing seven great challenges that we had to meet together as a
    community, challenges that we could not solve if our people were simply
    left to fend for themselves. I do believe that we are moving into a
    period of enormous possibility for our people. I honestly believe that
    for Americans who are positioned to take advantage of the world that
    we're living in and the one toward which we

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    are going, there will be more opportunities to fulfill their dreams than
    ever before in our history.
        But I also know that many, many Americans, indeed, millions of
    Americans will be blocked from that age of possibility unless we succeed
    in meeting all these challenges. And the very first one that I started
    with in the State of the Union is the one I want to talk about today,
    our obligation to cherish our children and strengthen our families.
        Secretary Shalala talked about the efforts we're making in welfare
    reform and how it relates to this. And we've talked elsewhere about what
    we're trying to do to discourage young people from smoking because that
    presents, by far, the greatest health damage that they face today.
        This morning we want to talk about teen pregnancy, because it is a
    moral problem and a personal problem and a challenge that individual
    young people should face and because it has reached such proportions
    that it is a very significant economic and social problem for the United
    States. The rates here, of course, are mirrored in many other countries
    in the world, but they're also causing the same kind of problems
    elsewhere, and that doesn't make it right.
        Teen parents often don't have the education they need, don't have
    the self-awareness they need, don't have the self-confidence they need
    to make the most of their own lives in the work force or to succeed
    themselves as parents.
        We know, too, that almost all the poor children in this country are
    living with one parent, that there are very, very few poor children,
    without regard to race, region, or income, living in two-parent, married
    households. We know that there are an awful lot of good single parents
    out there doing their best, but we also know it would be better if no
    teenager ever had a child out of wedlock, that it is not the right thing
    to do and it is not a good thing for the children's future and for the
    future of our country.
        We also know, finally, that we all have to work together to solve
    this problem and that the people who deserve the lion's share of credit
    are people like those who are behind me today, people who are giving
    their lives to try to give our young people things to say yes to, to try
    to give our young people a sense of self-confidence, a sense of
    identity, and a sense of the future so that they can make good personal
    decisions about their own lives.
        Members of our administration have been meeting with citizens like
    these folks from all sectors of our society and from all over the
    country to determine whether we could help to support the establishment
    of a new national organization that would expand upon and reinforce and
    elevate these community-based efforts.
        This is not a problem which can be solved in Washington. This is not
    a problem that can be dealt with by a politician's speech, no matter how
    statesmanlike. This is a challenge that has to be dealt with one-on-one-
    on-one throughout this country. But there are things, as these people
    have told me today, for political leaders to do; there are things for
    business leaders to do; there are things for people in the media to do;
    there are things for the health care system to do. And I am very pleased
    that from the grassroots we have gotten input about how you ought to
    design the right kind of national campaign against teen pregnancy.
        And today I am pleased to announce that a group of very prominent
    Americans will agree to become the first leaders of a National Campaign
    To Reduce Teen Pregnancy. A dozen are ready to begin the effort,
    including leaders in the field of helping our young people, like former
    Surgeon General Dr. Koop and David Hamburg of the Carnegie Corporations.
    Others who have agreed to play a role include the president of Drew
    University and the former Governor of New Jersey, Tom Kean; former New
    Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman; Ogilvy and Mather chair Charlotte
    Beers; Whoopi Goldberg; former mayor of Atlanta, Congressman, and U.N.
    Ambassador Andrew Young, who is now the cochair of the Olympics in
    Atlanta; and the president of MTV, Judy McGrath.
        I'd like also especially to thank Dr. Isabel Sawhill who is here
    with me now, now with the Urban Institute and used to be a part of this
    administration, for her serious efforts and leadership in spearheading
    this and getting all these folks together and trying to make sure that
    this effort will be rooted in America's communities.
        This will be a serious bipartisan effort to address this issue. We
    all know it ought to be an effort that goes on year-in and year-out; it
    ought to be completely beyond partisan politics. Many of the people who
    have agreed to meet, to serve, will be meeting tomorrow in New York.

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    And within the next month this group will be up and running. When it
    holds its first board meeting the National Campaign To Reduce Teen
    Pregnancy, I hope, will be coming to the White House to discuss how we
    can work together and how we can all do our part to advance this
    important work.
        Because Government does have to do its part, again, as I said in the
    State of the Union, we don't have a big Government anymore; it's much
    smaller than it was when I took office. But we don't want a weak
    Government, and we don't want to go back to the time when the American
    people were left to fend for themselves. We need to go forward in a
    sense of the spirit of partnership. And I have asked Dr. Henry Foster to
    serve as my senior adviser on this issue and to be my liaison to this
    national campaign, to make absolutely sure that we have done everything
    we can do to support this effort.
        In his career as a doctor and through his ``I Have A Future''
    program in Nashville, Dr. Foster has dedicated his energies to dealing
    with this complex, profoundly human problem of teen pregnancy, and he's
    had a remarkable amount of success. In this new role he will work in
    partnership with community-based organizations all across America to
    help give our young people the strength and the tools they need to lead
    responsible and successful lives.
        Ultimately, I believe what is needed on this issue is a revolution
    of the heart. We have to work to instill within every young man and
    woman a sense of personal responsibility, a sense of self-respect, and a
    sense of possibility. Having a child is the greatest responsibility
    anybody can assume, and it's still every American parent's most
    important job. I don't care what else they're doing. And it is not the
    right choice for a teenager to make before she or he is ready. This
    message has to be constantly enforced and reinforced by community
    organizations and by other groups who are in a position to help our
    children make good choices.
        The last point I want to make is that everybody can play a role. And
    those of us who are older and no longer subject to the drama that these
    children live with every day find it easier to make these speeches,
    perhaps, than young people do, but young people are more likely to be
    more effective in doing it. So I want to say a special word of thanks to
    one of the people who met with me today, the young gentleman here to my
    left, Collin Sears. He is demonstrating the kind of contribution one
    person can make. He has worked at Baltimore's Young People's Health
    Connection since he was in middle school, teaching other young people to
    make the right decisions and to take responsibilities for their lives.
        You know, he said--and when we were in the meeting, he was asked
    what was his most effective argument. And he said, ``Well, I really have
    three strategies that I use,'' and he laid out his strategies. Afterward
    I couldn't help thinking, if he'd been here helping me to lobby Congress
    on the budget, it might all be solved. [Laughter] I was absolutely
    carried away that he had, sort of, thought through how he ought to get
    inside the mind and heart of each young person with whom he was dealing.
    We need to lift people like him up. We need to lift programs up, like
    the Best Friends program here in Washington, DC, and I know we have some
    participants here. We need to lift these comprehensive efforts up, where
    these people are actually out there now literally giving their lives to
    help young people secure a better future for themselves, and we need to
    do it together.
        Let me say that there are a lot of things I would like to see done
    in this country over the next 4 or 5 years. But you just imagine what a
    difference America could make and what a different America we would have
    if we could cut the teen pregnancy rate in half. Just imagine how it
    could change the whole face of the country and the whole future of
    America and how our young people think about that future.
        That is really what this is about. It is an effort worth making. It
    ought to be completely bipartisan. We ought to commit ourselves to do it
    for as long as it takes, year-in and year-out, and we ought to root it
    in our communities and recognize that every one of us has a role to play
    and a responsibility to play it.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:53 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the
    White House. In his remarks, he referred to comedienne Whoopi Goldberg.