1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Ovarian and Cervical Cancer Awareness Act of 2020”.
Ovarian and Cervical Cancer Awareness Act of 2020
A BILL
To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for activities to increase the awareness and knowledge of health care providers and women with respect to ovarian and cervical cancer, and for other purposes.
2. Findings
The Congress finds as follows:
Ovarian and cervical cancers are among the most destructive gynecological forms of cancer.
Ovarian cancer causes more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system.
The main methods used to screen for ovarian cancer are pelvic exams, ultrasounds, Pap smears, and blood tests such as cancer antigen-125 (“CA–125”).
Most women who develop invasive cervical cancer have not had regular cervical cancer screening.
3. Purposes
The purposes of this Act are the following:
Raising awareness about ovarian and cervical cancers.
Raising awareness about the importance (especially for those women who have a family history of cancer or are otherwise at higher risk) of frequent consultation with a physician and the possibility of screening (through tests such as pelvic exams, ultrasounds, Pap smears, and blood tests such as cancer antigen-125) for ovarian, cervical, and other gynecologic cancer.
Promotion of early detection methods for ovarian and cervical cancer.
Ensuring that special emphasis is given to ovarian and cervical cancer under the public awareness campaign carried out by the Secretary of Health and Human Services under section 317P(d) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247b–17(d); commonly referred to as “Johanna’s Law”).
4. Increasing public awareness of ovarian and cervical cancer
Section 317P(d) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247b–17(d); commonly referred to as “Johanna’s Law”) is amended—
in paragraph (1)(A), by striking “with respect to gynecologic cancers” and inserting “with respect to ovarian, cervical, and other gynecologic cancers”; and
in paragraph (1), by adding at the end the following:
“(D) Low-income women—Activities under the national campaign under subparagraph (A) shall include public service announcements under subparagraph (C) targeted to low-income women.”
5. Sense of Congress
It is the sense of the Congress that funding by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of gynecologic cancer education and awareness efforts should reflect the fact that ovarian and cervical cancers are the most deadly of the gynecologic cancers.