Atlanta – The United States federal and many state and local governments are not doing enough to end cervical cancer deaths, the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative for Economic and Social Justice (SRBWI) and Human Rights Watch said in a report today issued during cervical cancer awareness month and focused on the state of Georgia. In 2021, an estimated 4,290 women in the United States died from cervical cancer, including disproportionately high numbers of Black women. Human Rights Watch first reported on the issue three years ago, with a focus on Alabama.

This groundbreaking report, “We Need Access,” is based on interviews by SRBWI, Human Rights Watch, and nine community-based researchers with Black women living in three rural counties (Baker, Coffee, and Wilcox) in Georgia. The research has found that Georgia state and US federal policies neglect the reproductive healthcare needs of Black women and contribute to an environment in which they are dying of cervical cancer, a highly preventable disease, at disproportionate rates.

Congratulations SRBWI Georgia State Lead Shirley Sherrod & Southwest Georgia Project on a Two Million Dollar commitment from Housing and Urban Development.

Congratulations Georgia HRC Lead Olivia Coley-Pearson, who was honored at the ADL Concert.

We need your support. Will you sign this petition telling Governor Brian Kemp (GA), Governor Bill Lee (TN), Governor Tate Reeves (MS), Governor Ron DeSantis (FL), Governor Henry McMaster (SC) and Governor Kay Ivey (AL) to not prioritize profits over people?

Governors across the South are being pressured to prematurely reopen our states. They need to hear from us that we can hold the complexities of the economy and the life and death health decisions that we have to make in regards to physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.