“This is Not the Time to Sit on the Sidelines”: TogetHER and Partners Engaging US Congress 

July 31, 2025

TogetHER for Health is dedicated to accelerating the end of cervical cancer everywhere. We have focused our advocacy and outreach efforts on addressing global disparities in access to HPV vaccination, cervical cancer screening, and preventive treatment. The availability of these life-saving  interventions is most limited in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), in which nine out of every ten global cervical cancer deaths occur. 

Cervical cancer has always been a disease of unacceptable inequity, but the global landscape has seen a profound change, prompting TogetHER to alter our approach to engaging policymakers about cervical cancer prevention abroad, as well as in the United States. 

Historically, the United States has been arguably the most significant funder of cervical cancer prevention programs in LMICs. US contributions to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance have been critical to expanding global access to HPV vaccines, which in just a few short years has risen from 3% coverage in lower-income countries to 25% in 2024, a major achievement towards saving lives from cervical and other HPV-related cancers. As an organization working to improve health, and increase access to reproductive health services, we are deeply concerned by the United States’ recent decision to withhold funding from Gavi, a huge blow not just to the goal of cervical cancer elimination, but to efforts to fight all vaccine-preventable diseases worldwide. 

The United States President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been the largest international supporter for cervical cancer screening and treatment since the launch of its Go Further partnership. Go Further has screened over 10 million women living with HIV for precancerous cervical lesions – a population bearing a sixfold increase in risk for cervical cancer diagnosis – with the majority of these women being screened for the first time in their lives. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) implemented innovative collaborations showing how integrating cervical cancer prevention services into family planning programs increases overall health impact. 

Threats to PEPFAR funding were ended – for the time being – when $400 million in proposed funding cuts were averted in the recent recissions package passed by the US Congress. But the wholescale dismantling of USAID is a costly and abrupt pivot away from decades of US leadership in global health and development which will result in lives lost and erode gains made in the fight against the largest global killers such as malaria and tuberculosis.

While TogetHER’s primary focus is on ensuring that effective cervical cancer prevention strategies are implemented at scale, we cannot ignore the cuts to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Today’s prevention strategies would not have been possible without NIH support; new innovations risk never being developed or tested at all. 

Threats to cervical cancer prevention programs in the United States have materialized in this policy environment as well. Significant cuts to Medicaid and to Planned Parenthood will reduce access access to low-cost cancer screenings, which is likely to most acutely affect women in underserved communities. 

On June 25th, we worked to organize a day of Congressional outreach to educate staffers of key appropriators on the importance of these investments in the United States and throughout the world. Thanks to representatives of Cervivor, amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of South Alabama, and our member organization, Jhpiego, for bringing expert insights and powerful stories to several Congressional offices across both parties.

While so much of the environment has been hostile to women’s health, we are encouraged by support for language around transitioning US-funded global cervical cancer programs from visual inspection with acetic acid to the more accurate, more scalable, and more acceptable HPV testing – something TogetHER and our partners have been fighting for since the World Health Organization updated its global screening and treatment recommendations four years ago. 

Nothing that happens in the policy sphere changes the fact that cervical cancer is preventable and endable with the right political and financial commitments. This truth will continue to inspire TogetHER, as we continue our work to make the case for investment and innovation to put cervical cancer in the history books. 

Cervical cancer prevention champions from GreyRobinson, TogetHER for Health, Jhpiego, Cervivor, and Massachusetts General Hospital