Cervical cancer, a disease that is largely preventable, continues to claim disproportionate numbers of Black women’s lives in the rural South because of persistent policy and health system failures. A new report highlighted by The American Journal of Managed Care focuses on the Mississippi Delta, where extreme poverty and limited access to care have combined to produce some of the nation’s highest cervical cancer death rates.
Mississippi has the highest cervical cancer mortality rate in the United States, and Black women in the state are about 1.5 times more likely to die from the disease than White women. Nationally, Black women face cervical cancer death rates that are 65% to 75% higher than those of their White counterparts. The report emphasizes that these outcomes persist despite the availability of effective prevention tools, including HPV vaccination and routine screening.
Researchers found that decades of underfunding for public health, the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid, and restrictions on reproductive health services have sharply limited access to preventive care. Many women are diagnosed at later stages, when treatment is less effective. Limited access to HPV vaccination, driven by misinformation, logistical barriers, and cost, further deepens the disparity.
Oleta Garrett Fitzgerald, regional administrator for the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative for Economic and Social Justice, said lives are being lost unnecessarily. “We have people who are dying who don’t need to be dying,” she told AJMC, pointing to failures to provide information, vaccines, and basic gynecologic services. She added, “Expanding Medicaid remains a major issue as it relates to cervical cancer outreach.”
Distrust rooted in structural racism also discourages women from seeking care, the report notes. Without policy changes to expand Medicaid, rebuild rural health systems, and improve culturally competent outreach, preventable cervical cancer deaths among Black women in the rural South are likely to continue.
See: “Health System Policy Failures Drive Cervical Cancer Disparities in Rural South” (February 24, 2025)