GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — First Lady Dr. Jill Biden made a trip to Grand Rapids on Friday and, despite a raspy voice, she still attended an event honoring the role she currently holds.
Dr. Biden is the first sitting First Lady to attend the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation's First Lady Luncheon in Grand Rapids. But, despite being named the keynote speaker, Dr. Biden had to sit on stage quietly for much of the event.
She briefly stepped up to the microphone telling the crowd she woke up Friday morning feeling under the weather.
"I said to myself, 'What would Betty Ford do?'" Dr. Biden told the crowd. "So, I got myself up and got myself together."
"As an American who really loved Betty Ford as our First Lady, I decided I wanted to come here, to be with all of you. So Betty, I'm here for you," said Dr. Biden.
Instead, Dr. Carolyn Mazure delivered the speech — different voice, same message.
"The historian Richard Norton said once said where women's health issues are concerned American history is divided into two unequal periods before Betty and after Betty," said Dr. Mazure.
The foundation invited Dr. Biden to help mark 50 years since then-first lady Betty Ford announced her breast cancer diagnosis in 1974.
It was a battle she shared publicly with the American people, changing the conversation around women’s health.
Dr. Mazure said "every woman could see a part of herself in Betty."
Alongside the First Lady, Dr. Mazure leads the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, which looks to change how the U.S. approaches and funds research on women's health.
For decades, research has been understudied and underfunded, until the 1990s when the federal government mandated that women be included in any federally funded medical research.
"This is creating gaps in our understanding of conditions that mostly affect women, only affect women, or affect women and men differently, leaving women seeking health care in medical world largely designed for men," explained Dr. Mazure.
In March, President Biden also signed an Executive Order that says when the government funds research, women must be included from the beginning.
He's also calling on congress to allocate $12 billion.
"We've got a long road to go to make up in the disparities that have happened," says West Michigan Congresswoman Hillary Scholten, one of several lawmakers in attendance.
"We really need to put our money where our mouth is when it comes to making sure that we have the resources," says Rep. Scholten.
She also hopes that a lot of that work can be done in Kent County, home to the largest hospital system in the state of Michigan.
"We're perfectly poised to do a lot of that research and bring us forward into the 21st century when it comes to women's health."
Several West Michigan State lawmakers were also at the lunchoen including Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, and State Representatives Phil Skaggs, John Fitzgerald, Carol Glanville and Rachel Hood.
This is the 12th annual First Ladies Luncheon, previous speakers include Rosalynn Carter, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush.
The luncheon was followed by a half-day conference honoring Betty Ford. The conference will focus on Mrs. Ford's time as first lady, and how she launched the first first ladies conference in 1984.
Speakers include Ford's daughter Susan Ford Bales, former Ford Administration Press Secretary Sheila Rabb Weidenfeld, and several professors and authors who specialize on the role of the first lady.
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