Go to Content Go to Navigation Go to Navigation Go to Site Search Homepage

Cervical Cancer Prevention Act Signed Into Law in South Carolina

For Immediate Release: April 21, 2016


Common sense public health legislation overcomes years of legislative roadblocks

COLUMBIA, SC-- H.3204, the Cervical Cancer Prevention Act, was signed into law today with bipartisan support from the South Carolina legislature. Similar bills have been introduced every legislative session since 2011 but none received final approval from the Legislature and Governor until today. The success of H. 3204 is thanks to the tireless work of legislative champions and public health advocates to ensure that all stakeholders understand the necessity of this bill to protect the long-term health of South Carolina’s young people.

This common-sense law will allow parents access information about HPV and the HPV vaccine by providing educational materials about the vaccine to families, as well as make the vaccine available to middle school students with parental permission. The HPV vaccine is very safe and, if provided early enough, the vaccine can prevent up to 90% of cases of cervical cancer.

"Detecting and preventing cancer is an essential part of ensuring that all women lead safe, healthy lives," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "Today, elected officials of both parties in South Carolina came together to bring that one step closer to reality. This bill enacts common sense public policy that will help prevent cancer for South Carolina women. With widespread public support, its success represents a step forward in providing the full range of reproductive health care in South Carolina. This is an example of public officials embracing proven public health policy, something we don’t see enough of these days. We hope other states follow suit to expand access to care that helps prevent cancer, keeping women and families healthy.”

South Carolina currently ranks seventh in the nation for cervical cancer mortality. HPV is an extremely common STI- so common that 1 in 2 sexually-active people have HPV although many may not know it. HPV is also the leading cause of cervical cancer. To be most effective, the HPV vaccine should be provided before exposure which is why the CDC and FDA recommend that young people ages 11-12 receive the vaccine.

“At Planned Parenthood our top priority is to ensure that all people have access to the health care services they need to lead healthy lives,” said Alyssa Miller, SC Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. “The HPV vaccine today is cancer prevention for tomorrow. We applaud state leaders for recognizing the important impact that this vaccine will have on the long-term health of our state’s citizens.

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic joined legislators, community partners and other health care professionals in praising the passage H. 3204. The law goes into effect today with information and access to the vaccine for students and their families in the 2016-2017 school year.

 

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic is a private, nonprofit family planning agency that respects and protects the rights of each woman, man and young person to make informed reproductive decisions. Our mission is to provide accessible, high-quality health care and information to clients and to serve as advocate and educator to the community on responsible human sexuality. We have offices and health centers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

This page is controlled and operated by Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic.

Planned Parenthood cares about your data privacy. We and our third-party vendors use cookies and other tools to collect, store, monitor, and analyze information about your interaction with our site to improve performance, analyze your use of our sites and assist in our marketing efforts. You may opt out of the use of these cookies and other tools at any time by visiting Cookie Settings. By clicking “Allow All Cookies” you consent to our collection and use of such data, and our Terms of Use. For more information, see our Privacy Notice.

Cookie Settings

Planned Parenthood cares about your data privacy. We and our third-party vendors, use cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies to collect, store, monitor, and process certain information about you when you access and use our services, read our emails, or otherwise engage with us. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences, or your device. We use that information to make the site work, analyze performance and traffic on our website, to provide a more personalized web experience, and assist in our marketing efforts. We also share information with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners. You can change your default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our Necessary Cookies as they are deployed to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information, please see our Privacy Notice.

Marketing

On

We use online advertising to promote our mission and help constituents find our services. Marketing pixels help us measure the success of our campaigns.

Performance

On

We use qualitative data, including session replay, to learn about your user experience and improve our products and services.

Analytics

On

We use web analytics to help us understand user engagement with our website, trends, and overall reach of our products.