US Congresswoman and Democratic Whip Katherine Clark: Women are on the Ballot and Your Voice Matters || EP. 176

[00:00:00] It is all on the line. And we know that. And if we start with reproductive freedom, I can tell you that you said we're moving into a partisan part of this discussion. This has no business in partisan politics, but that's what it's become.

[00:00:16] Yes.

[00:00:18] Dr. Sarah, Ph.D.: Health care should not be partisan. Health care should be a right in this country and not a privilege. And certainly women's health care, reproductive health care should not be a political football that we see it now. And so I can tell you that everywhere I go, and every time it is on the ballot, reproductive freedom wins.

[00:00:43] Yes.

[00:00:44] Dr. Sarah, Ph.D.: Because people of all political ideologies and somewhat very nuanced ideas on whether abortion would ever be right for them, they want to make that decision. They want to make it with their families, with their doctor and in accordance with their faith, if that is what is right for them.

[00:01:12] This is Inspiring Women and I'm Laurie McGraw, and I have an unbelievable guest today. I am speaking with United States Rep.

[00:01:19] Representative Catherine Clark. She is the second only female that has held the position of whip in the United States House of Representatives, second only to Nancy Pelosi, who came before her. Representative Clark is a member of Congress.

[00:01:37] She is one of the 28% of women who are in Congress today. She is the second most powerful Democrat that there is. And Whit Clark, thank you for being on Inspiring Women.

[00:01:52] Laurie, it is such a pleasure to be with you. I am inspired by your podcast, so we are really thrilled to be here.

[00:02:00] Dr. Sarah, Ph.D.: Well, you are kind. You are kind. But I wanted to just start very quickly. You have been in Congress for just over a decade now. You have quickly risen to the top of the ticket in terms of just your leadership. I want to thank you for your public service and for the work that you're doing.

[00:02:23] But can you just speak to quickly what like the the bio sketch of sort of like why did you choose public service? You're a lawyer. You are a Cornell, a Harvard. You are all these things. But you chose public service at the area to spend time. Why? Why was that a great choice for you?

[00:02:44] Dr. Sarah, Ph.D.: Well, that is such a great question, Laurie. And for me, I spent a brief period of time in private practice. But being able to use my law degree in public service has just been such a great joy to be able to help move us forward, whether it was work that I was doing here in Massachusetts as general counsel for the Office of Child Care Services,

[00:03:12] time I spent as a prosecutor in Colorado, just working on the issues that are so critical to families, to women, to children has been a just a tremendous privilege and a career that I could have only dreamed of when I was in law school.

[00:03:37] Dr. Sarah P.D.: What was the what was the what was the reason that you chose it, though? So like, you know, you could have done a lot of wonderful work as a lawyer. But why did public service become the calling?

[00:03:50] Dr. Sarah P.D.: Yeah, you know, it I graduated from law school, I joined a big firm in Chicago. And there were many lawyers there that are just, you know, amazing intellect and, and, and sort of storied careers. But I looked around and my interest, we spend a lot of time at work. And my interest was not sort of how we cut up the corporate pie.

[00:04:19] Dr. Sarah P.D.: But really, how we could make a difference for families at home. And one of the the first jobs that I had was working as a prosecutor in Colorado for the Attorney General's Office.

[00:04:35] And that really got me thinking about, I had a lot of cases that involved crimes against children and crimes by children.

[00:04:47] And what I decided was, I didn't want to come into a child's life when all the worst outcomes had already happened. But what could we do around education, around housing, about building an economy that works, whether that's paid leave or making sure that we can afford and access college or great apprenticeship programs.

[00:05:16] And that is really what got me interested in switching gears about staying in public service was trying to figure out what those barriers were to success.

[00:05:29] And how did we end up with, you know, sometimes 12, 14 year olds committing serious crimes and having a criminal justice system that doesn't serve them well either.

[00:05:43] That, you know, it was certainly part of the trend. And this is in the early 90s that we started trying children as adults instead of looking at what has happened in this kid's life, that they're in this situation and may have committed a serious property crime or even injured somebody.

[00:06:04] And so that was the hook for me. And so that was the hook for me. And I was very fortunate to be able to come back from Colorado, move back east with my husband, start a family here.

[00:06:16] And the first job I got out of the school at Harvard was this general counsel job with the Office of Child Care Services.

[00:06:27] And early education has just been one of my priorities in all my work because it unlocks not only a child's potential, but is also so great for moms and dads and for our business community.

[00:06:45] And we don't do right by our kids with child care and families in this country. And it is really work that is continuing.

[00:06:59] It's so much there's so much more to do. And now as part of the new leadership for the Democratic Party, you are covering all the issues.

[00:07:08] I want to move to some of the ones and I'm just going to pick the ones that are so important for women.

[00:07:14] I want to just say that I am, you know, as someone who is very concerned about reproductive freedom, about protecting the Affordable Care Act, as, you know, also Medicare and Medicaid.

[00:07:30] I, along with five other executive leaders in health care, have put forward an effort.

[00:07:37] It's called Women Health Care Leaders for Progress.

[00:07:40] We have 600 women who have publicly signed to support Kamala Harris, Tim Walz for the White House because of those three issues that we believe are just the most important for this election.

[00:07:56] So I do want to get quite partisan for a moment.

[00:08:01] And, Whip Clark, I would love for you to comment on those three areas in terms of what is at stake in this election.

[00:08:12] Reproductive rights, protecting the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid.

[00:08:18] Yeah, it is all on the line.

[00:08:20] And we know that.

[00:08:21] And if we start with reproductive freedom, I can tell you that you said we're moving into a partisan part of this discussion.

[00:08:30] This has no business in partisan politics, but that's what it's become.

[00:08:36] Health care should not be partisan.

[00:08:39] Health care should be a right in this country and not a privilege.

[00:08:42] And certainly women's health care, reproductive health care should not be a political football that we see it now.

[00:08:51] And so I can tell you that everywhere I go and every time it is on the ballot, reproductive freedom wins.

[00:09:02] And it's because people of all political ideologies and somewhat very nuanced ideas on whether abortion would ever be right for them.

[00:09:13] They want to make that decision.

[00:09:16] They want to make it with their families, with their doctor and in accordance with their faith.

[00:09:23] If that is what is right for them.

[00:09:24] And so it is this level of government intrusion and denial of freedom that women and men understand in this country.

[00:09:37] And that is why even though we are seeing Republican candidates from the very top of the ticket on down trying to say, oh, this issue isn't really that important.

[00:09:48] It is fundamental to who we are as a country if we are going to take away such a personal decision of if, when and how to have children.

[00:10:00] And the American people see this for what it is.

[00:10:04] It is about making women second class citizens.

[00:10:07] Yes.

[00:10:08] And, you know, with the ACA at the same time, having Donald Trump and J.D. Vance and all of the House GOP members who have endorsed them also focus on rolling back the ACA is is just mind blowing on how out of touch and how damaging this is to the American family and the American people.

[00:10:36] And I think that the damage is such an important word.

[00:10:41] Just to underscore, I could not obviously agree with you more.

[00:10:46] But if I am still feeling shaken from the turning back of Roe v. Wade, which I viewed as certainly the majority of Americans by a lot have been supportive of it, just as you've said.

[00:10:59] But since that has happened and this pushing down to the states, the ramifications of that, we are just beginning to see the devastation that is out there.

[00:11:10] Just having seen Chelsea Clinton speaking about this 13 year olds dying in their cars because they can't get care because of this.

[00:11:20] We're seeing crimes of pregnancy, 200 women being prosecuted for this in states now due to, you know, this being put down into the states.

[00:11:32] We have only nine states that are out there that even allow for people to make these women to be making these choices for their own body.

[00:11:42] So could you just comment? Like, I don't think this could get worse.

[00:11:48] I don't know how else to express it.

[00:11:51] It will get worse. I mean, that is the thing.

[00:11:54] I will say this about my colleagues across the aisle.

[00:11:58] They tell you exactly what they're going to do and then they do it.

[00:12:02] Donald Trump promised to overturn Roe v. Wade.

[00:12:05] He put the Supreme Court in place to do it and they did it.

[00:12:09] And they are saying they are writing down they will do a national abortion ban.

[00:12:15] And if you listen to Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, he goes on the Sunday shows and he says, don't worry about that.

[00:12:22] We don't have the votes. What is unspoken is the yet.

[00:12:27] And that is what they're trying to get.

[00:12:29] And if they get the votes and they have the power and the majority, they will enact this because this is about control.

[00:12:40] Full stop. It is about denial of freedom.

[00:12:43] And what we have are these stories of just incredible cruelty.

[00:12:49] I you know, my State of the Union guests was Amanda Zorowski from Texas.

[00:12:55] And we are like bookends for the Dobbs decision.

[00:12:59] When I had miscarriage, went for a routine ultrasound and there was no fetal heartbeat.

[00:13:07] But I didn't miscarry.

[00:13:09] My doctor said, you need an abortion so that you don't have an infection set in.

[00:13:16] And that was sort of hard to take in.

[00:13:18] And I remember having them check to make sure there was no heartbeat before the procedure.

[00:13:23] But it was just a given that that was offered to me, done in a hospital, done with, you know, covered by insurance.

[00:13:33] And you fast forward to Amanda in a post-Roe v. Wade country in Texas.

[00:13:43] Another woman who has great insurance, a great job, has a miscarriage and needs an abortion to prevent infection.

[00:13:53] The difference is her doctor was under threat of criminal penalty and had to tell her to go home and wait till she spiked a fever.

[00:14:04] She did.

[00:14:06] Sepsis set in.

[00:14:07] She was in the ICU, nearly lost her life, considers herself lucky to have survived this.

[00:14:16] And now doesn't know if she will ever be able to have children again because of the damage that was done to her body.

[00:14:24] And these stories repeat themselves.

[00:14:27] We know of women who have died from the lack of care that they received.

[00:14:32] So this is just, you know, and to compound it all, we have you cannot take away a part of health care,

[00:14:42] criminalize a certain part of health care, and then expect the rest of the system to function.

[00:14:49] So currently we have one third of all counties in our country have no obstetrics care.

[00:14:56] One third.

[00:14:58] Who does that punish?

[00:14:59] That punishes women in rural America predominantly, but women everywhere who just have, you know,

[00:15:08] just want to have families, just want to be able to access basic health care.

[00:15:13] And I think back to the last time they tried to repeal the ACA and replace it with these 12 junk plans.

[00:15:21] Not a single one of them covered maternity care.

[00:15:27] So we get the message about where women and pregnant women stand with this extreme version of the GOP.

[00:15:36] And I think the American people are going to reject it like they've done every time it's been on the ballot on November 5th.

[00:15:45] Well, Whip Clark, first of all, thank you for sharing that painful and personal story.

[00:15:53] And it's hard to hear these other examples.

[00:15:57] They are very real.

[00:15:58] And I think they need to be told because that is what is actually happening.

[00:16:06] And we need to stare at this ugly thing in the face.

[00:16:11] And listen, health care is complicated.

[00:16:13] We've all known that for people who have been working seriously in this area.

[00:16:18] There have been 2,000 plus attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

[00:16:25] And as it turns out, people really like it.

[00:16:27] People really appreciate having coverage and full stop.

[00:16:31] If there's not access to care, there are worse outcomes.

[00:16:35] And we know that.

[00:16:36] So maybe one last policy issue is just on Medicare and Medicaid, two programs that are well used, well appreciated by people who have access to them.

[00:16:49] What's at stake with those?

[00:16:52] You know, those are also at stake.

[00:16:54] If we look at Project 2025, they are writing down that these programs are on the chopping block if we elect Donald Trump and Republican majorities in Congress.

[00:17:09] And again, it is hard to take in because this cruelty, this obsession with taking away health care from people, just it almost seems like they're cartoon villains.

[00:17:23] I think it's hard for people to really take in what is happening here.

[00:17:29] And this idea that we should balance our budget, not looking at creating a fair tax code where everyone pays a fair share, not looking at creating a robust green economy, further making sure that we're returning manufacturing to our shores.

[00:17:50] But instead, we look at cutting health care for our seniors and low income people in this country.

[00:17:59] I mean, what are they possibly thinking?

[00:18:01] Yet these are not just ideas.

[00:18:04] These are policies that they have put before the House of Representatives over the last two years repeatedly.

[00:18:12] And when they had a chance to vote, to negotiate prescription drugs, to bring down the price of medications that people need in Medicare, not a single Republican voted to support it.

[00:18:29] Not a single one voted to cap insulin at $35 a month.

[00:18:34] Not a single one said, let's cap out-of-pocket expenses for our seniors.

[00:18:40] I mean, how is that even true?

[00:18:43] And we know that those with wealth will always be able to afford health care in this country.

[00:18:49] But we have to do everything we can to make sure that every single American can access the health care they need and deserve.

[00:18:59] And this grip of extremism is displayed in many, many different policies and ways.

[00:19:08] But the denial of abortion...

[00:19:11] Well, these are such serious issues.

[00:19:16] And it takes serious people, competent people.

[00:19:21] And I firmly support just getting competence, certainly in the White House with the election of Kamala Harris and Tim Walls.

[00:19:31] As we close out this Inspiring Women conversation with Clark, I want to, again, thank you for your leadership.

[00:19:38] And I want to thank you for your service.

[00:19:41] And I would love it if you could just close this out for inspiration for other younger women who want to move to leadership in terms of something that spoke to you that you might say to them.

[00:19:54] You know, I always quote Nancy Pelosi.

[00:19:59] And she says, know your why.

[00:20:02] And when you know your why, why you're running for office, why you want to be a CEO, why you want to start your own business, whatever your dream may be, know that that is your dream and that it is a worthy one.

[00:20:18] And that your voice matters, whether it's in the boardroom or in the halls of Congress.

[00:20:25] It is so critical that women in this country have a seat at the table because when they do, the priorities change.

[00:20:35] I've certainly seen that in Congress and in other places in my career.

[00:20:42] And so I would just say dream big.

[00:20:46] The worst thing that can happen is that you have a setback and setbacks are just another learning opportunity as we move forward.

[00:20:56] So I would just say to your listeners, know your power and know that your voice matters so much at this point in our country's history.

[00:21:05] Well, speaking of power, that is just amazing advice.

[00:21:12] And I want to sincerely say thank you.

[00:21:14] I have been speaking on this Inspiring Women conversation with U.S. Representative Catherine Clark, with Clark.

[00:21:21] Thank you so very much.

[00:21:23] Thank you, Lori.

[00:21:24] This has been an episode of Inspiring Women with Lori McGraw.

[00:21:28] Please subscribe, rate and review.

[00:21:30] We are produced at Executive Podcast Solutions.

[00:21:33] More episodes can be found on inspiringwomen.show.

[00:21:38] I am Lori McGraw, and thank you for listening.