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OKLAHOMA CITY - About a dozen Oklahoma City University students held up fluorescent signs outside the offices of Sen. Tom Coburn on Wednesday to urge him to support federal legislation to increase awareness about gynecologic cancers.
Members of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority want Coburn and others to back "Johanna's Law," a measure named after a retired teacher who died of ovarian cancer in 2000 at the age of 58.
They also held up photographs of one of their sorority sisters from Pryor who died of cancer in 2005. The woman had not been aware that she had cancer until it was in its advanced stages, said Amanda Andrews, 21, an Oklahoma City University senior majoring in religion.
Johanna's Law would create a national public awareness campaign to increase knowledge about gynecologic cancers, according to the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists. Grants would be awarded to test outreach and education strategies, the group said.
Coburn supports the measure but wants to improve on it by forcing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to implement a measure he had passed as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, his office said.
"The Gynecologic Cancer Education and Awareness Act," was expected to pass the Senate on Wednesday and then return to the House, said John Hart, Coburn's communications director.
Hart said Coburn, R-Okla., supports the concept but is concerned that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn't enact provisions of his earlier measure that dealt with a lot of the same kinds of topics, such as educating women about the risk factors of cervical cancer, Hart said.
Coburn's provision calls for all condom packages to contain information about condoms being ineffective in preventing human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted disease linked to cervical cancer.
Last year, Coburn blocked confirmation of President Bush's nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration to force the FDA to implement the condom label law. Coburn lifted his hold after he was assured the law would be implemented.
Members of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority want Coburn and others to back "Johanna's Law," a measure named after a retired teacher who died of ovarian cancer in 2000 at the age of 58.
They also held up photographs of one of their sorority sisters from Pryor who died of cancer in 2005. The woman had not been aware that she had cancer until it was in its advanced stages, said Amanda Andrews, 21, an Oklahoma City University senior majoring in religion.
Johanna's Law would create a national public awareness campaign to increase knowledge about gynecologic cancers, according to the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists. Grants would be awarded to test outreach and education strategies, the group said.
Coburn supports the measure but wants to improve on it by forcing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to implement a measure he had passed as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, his office said.
"The Gynecologic Cancer Education and Awareness Act," was expected to pass the Senate on Wednesday and then return to the House, said John Hart, Coburn's communications director.
Hart said Coburn, R-Okla., supports the concept but is concerned that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn't enact provisions of his earlier measure that dealt with a lot of the same kinds of topics, such as educating women about the risk factors of cervical cancer, Hart said.
Coburn's provision calls for all condom packages to contain information about condoms being ineffective in preventing human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted disease linked to cervical cancer.
Last year, Coburn blocked confirmation of President Bush's nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration to force the FDA to implement the condom label law. Coburn lifted his hold after he was assured the law would be implemented.
