'What would Betty Ford do?': Jill Biden makes truncated appearance in Grand Rapids

Grand Rapids — First lady Jill Biden delivered brief remarks Friday at an event honoring the work of presidential spouses after arriving in the hometown of President Gerald Ford feeling “under the weather and without a voice.”

Biden’s speech — scheduled during the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation’s Annual First Ladies Luncheon — was one stop on her nationwide tour to promote the White House Initiative on Women’s Health, which she and President Joe Biden launched in November 2023.

The women’s health initiative aims to expand research on diseases and conditions that disproportionately, or only, affect women, according to the White House. About $300 million in federal funding has been allocated to the project so far.

Susan Ford Bales — daughter of the late President Gerald Ford and first lady Betty Ford — took the stage at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Grand Rapids to introduce Biden, describing her as a “trailblazer.”

“There was a time when women’s healthcare policy and funding were kicked to the shadows of the (Office of Management and Budget) and congressional backrooms,” Ford Bales said. “And then, ladies and gentlemen, there was Jill.”

Ford Bales said Jill Biden follows in the footsteps of first lady Betty Ford, largely recognized as the first president's wife to speak openly and candidly about women’s health. 

Betty Ford was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 1974, seven weeks after her husband became the nation’s 38th president following the resignation of President Richard Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

Audience members were surprised when Ford Bales said someone else would present Biden’s speech on her behalf because of a “medical issue.”

Biden then took the stage, and with a strained voice, said “so, I woke up this morning feeling a little under the weather and without a voice.”

“I said to myself, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do?” Biden said. “And I said, ‘Well, what would Betty Ford do?”

“So I got myself up and I got myself together…I decided I wanted to come here and be with all of you. So, Betty, I’m here for you.”

Biden told the crowd she was “sorry” she wouldn’t be able to deliver her speech.

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Carolyn Mazure — the director of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health and founder of Yale School of Medicine’s Women’s Health Research at Yale — delivered Biden’s speech on her behalf. 

“Even though we are half the population, Women's Health is understudied and research is being underfunded,” Mazure said. “Too many studies have left women out and too many of the medications, treatments and medical textbooks are based on men and their bodies, and that information does not always apply to women.”

Insufficient research on women’s health has created “gaps in our understanding of conditions that mostly affect women, only affect women, or affect women and men differently,” Mazure said. 

Last month, President Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to prioritize funding for women’s research efforts and strengthen data collection standards to ensure funding is being leveraged most effectively. 

He also called for Congress to make a $12 billion dollar investment in women’s health research during his State of the Union address last month. 

When asked about healthcare in America, almost every woman “probably has a story to tell,” Mazure said.

“She’s the woman who gets debilitating migraines and doesn't know why, and can't find treatment options that work for her,” Mazure said. “She’s the woman going through menopause, who visits her doctor, and leaves with more questions than answers.” 

But Mazure said the White House Initiative on Women’s Health aims to “​​fundamentally change how our nation approaches and funds Women's Health Research.”

Since the initiative was launched in November, Mazure said the administration has made “remarkable progress.”

Sofia Walker, a member of the Progressive Women’s Alliance of West Michigan, said she attended Friday's luncheon because she thinks Jill Biden is “an amazing first lady.”

She said she understood that Biden wasn’t able to deliver the speech on her own and was still glad she addressed the crowd briefly. 

“Life happens,” Walker said. “She did the most she could under the circumstances and I thought the speech was great.”