Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I am proud to introduce the March of Dimes Commemorative Coin Act. For almost 75 years, the March of Dimes has fought to combat and prevent diseases that strike our youngest children, while also supporting mothers-to-be and families with infants in intensive care. The March of Dimes was founded in 1938 by President Franklin Roosevelt as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, at a time when polio was on the rise. The Foundation established a polio patient aid program and funded research for vaccines developed by Jonas Salk, MD, and Albert Sabin, MD. These vaccines effectively ended epidemic polio in the United States. Today one in 33 babies born in the United States is affected by a birth defect, and tragically, more than 5,500 infants die every year because of a birth defect. Moreover, an additional 500,000 children are diagnosed with developmental disabilities each year. Almost 13 percent of babies born in America are born prematurely--an increase of 36 percent since the early 1980s. In 2003, the March of Dimes took on the cause of reducing the number of infants who are born prematurely. And thanks to the great work of the March of Dimes and others, after three decades of increase, the pre-term birth rate has now dropped for the third year in a row. You would be hard pressed to find someone today who doesn't have a friend, a family member, a neighbor or a coworker who's had a baby born prematurely or born with some kind of birth defect.…”