WHEREAS, the U.S. Congress designated January as Cervical Health Awareness Month; and

WHEREAS, each year in the United States approximately 13,000 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed and approximately 4,000 women die of this cancer; and

WHEREAS, this year in Maine an estimated 39 women will be diagnosed with this disease; and

WHEREAS, regular screening to detect the disease early when treatment can be most successful saves lives; and

WHEREAS, women ages 21 to 29 years should receive cervical cancer screening with a Pap test every 3 years, and women ages 30 to 65 years should receive a Pap test every 3 years or both Pap and HPV tests every 5 years; and

WHEREAS, if a woman living in Maine does not have a medical provider, health insurance, or is underinsured, she can contact the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Breast and Cervical Health Program at 1-800-350-5180 to see if she qualifies for breast and cervical cancer screenings and diagnostic tests, and possibly treatment for breast and cervical cancer;

NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Janet T. Mills, Governor of the State of Maine, do hereby proclaim January 2023 as

Cervical Health Awareness Month

throughout the State of Maine, and I encourage all citizens to recognize that cervical cancer is preventable and to offer support to women in taking charge of their health by getting screened.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the Great Seal of the State to be hereunto affixed GIVEN under my hand at Augusta this twentieth day of December Two Thousand Twenty-Two