The Ovarian Cancer Awareness Resolution

Floor Speech

* Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this important bipartisan resolution that will help to raise awareness of the warning signs for ovarian cancer. This is an important vote that, put simply, will save lives of women across the country.

* While we have made considerable progress in recent years in the war against cancer, thanks to the hard work of biomedical researchers at NIH and elsewhere, ovarian cancer has been a stubborn enemy. It remains the fifth most common cancer among women, and one I myself suffered from 25 years ago. It causes more deaths than any other female reproductive cancer. More than 15,000 of our friends and family are expected to perish from it this year.

* Perhaps the saddest thing about these grim numbers is that some of these deaths are readily preventable. We know that women who catch their ovarian cancer at an earlier stage are over three times more likely to survive the disease than those who do not. Sadly, over 60% of the women diagnosed with ovarian cancer between 1999 and 2006 fell into this latter category.

* That's why it is so important that we pass this resolution, and continue to help raise awareness about ovarian cancer. Of course, there are other steps we should also take. We need to re-fund Johanna's Law this year, which, despite strong bipartisan support, was zeroed out in the 2011 budget. And we need to continue to support the congressional-directed medical research program for ovarian cancer research at the Department of Defense, which was cut by 20% in the House's 2012 Defense Appropriations Bill.

* But today, we can do our part by standing up against ovarian cancer, and passing this resolution. Cancer is indiscriminate. It does not care about your age, your family, your sex, your race, your religion, or your political party. It reminds us that we are all human and vulnerable. And that we must all come together--man and woman, young and old, Democrat and Republican--to fight it on every front.

* I urge my colleagues to support this resolution, and to help put an end to deaths from ovarian cancer.

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