[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 40 (Monday, October 7, 1996)]
[Pages 1959-1960]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6926--National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, 1996

October 3, 1996

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Each year we set aside the month of October as a time to assess the 
toll that breast cancer takes on our society and the progress we have 
made in our battle to overcome it. For those of us who have lost loved 
ones to this disease--mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, and friends--
the battle holds special urgency.
    Breast cancer remains the second leading cause of all deaths among 
women ages 40 to 55. In 1996, a woman will die from breast cancer every 
12 minutes, and 184,300 women in the United States will be diagnosed 
with the disease. Every one of these diagnoses changes not only that 
woman's life, but the lives of all who love and care for her.

[[Page 1960]]

    We have embarked on an all-out assault to combat this threat. The 
Federal Government has nearly doubled funding for breast cancer 
research, detection, and treatment since 1993, from $271 million to $476 
million in the Department of Health and Human Services alone. And in 
response to requests from 2.6 million of our Nation's citizens, we 
launched the National Action Plan on Breast Cancer, an innovative 
public-private partnership to develop a national strategy for 
prevention, education and care.
    We can be proud of the progress we are making in the fight against 
breast cancer. During the most recent 5-year period for which data are 
available (1989-1993), age-adjusted mortality rates for white women fell 
almost 6 percent. Although mortality rates among African American women 
are still increasing, the rate of increase has slowed to 1 percent, 
compared to 16 percent during the 1980's.
    One of our most successful weapons in the fight against breast 
cancer is early detection. The new Mammography Quality Standards Act now 
ensures that every woman who obtains a mammogram to detect breast cancer 
in its earliest, curable, stages can be certain that facilities meet the 
highest quality standards for equipment and personnel. We are 
implementing the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection 
Program to make free or low-cost mammography available to medically 
under-served women. The First Lady launched an education campaign to 
inform and encourage older women to use Medicare's mammography screening 
benefit. And to improve early detection, we are transferring imaging 
technologies from the space, defense, and intelligence communities.
    I urge women throughout our nation to have appropriate mammograms, 
to perform routine self-examination, and to take advantage of the latest 
in preventive medical care. Armed with this commonsense approach and the 
promising advances in research and treatment, we can look forward with 
confidence to the day when breast cancer is finally eradicated.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 
1996 as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I call upon government 
officials, businesses, communities, volunteers, educators, and all the 
people of the United States to celebrate the successes we have had in 
advancing our knowledge of breast cancer, and to reaffirm our commitment 
to continue to work together to fight this disease.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this third day of 
October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and of 
the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-first.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:28 a.m., October 4, 
1996]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on October 
7.