Teens for Vaccines Supports Cancer Prevention & Reproductive Health Equity Bill, AB 659

April 18, 2023, Sacramento, California

"Good morning, honorable members of the Assembly Health Committee.

My name is Arin Parsa. I am a tenth-grader from San Jose and I am the founder of Teens for Vaccines,  a youth organization with ambassadors across many states in the U.S., promoting life-saving vaccines and encouraging parent-teen conversations so all teens can lead healthy lives without worrying about preventable diseases.

I’m here today to voice my strong support for Assembly Bill 659 so students like me can live without the fear of HPV, a cancer-causing deadly virus. HPV vaccine prevents cancer but our rates in California among teens especially in rural and low-income counties are really low, less than 30%, nowhere close to 80% that we aspire for. 

I got my two doses of HPV vaccine when I was in middle school because I was fortunate to have routine WellCare doctor visits to keep all my immunizations up-to-date. But not all teens are as fortunate as I am. Some families are unaware that the HPV vaccine is most effective when administered to young people 9 - 12 years of age. Other families simply can’t afford the vaccine. With Assembly Bill 659 requiring all public and private health insurance programs to cover the costs of vaccinating for HPV, we have a real opportunity to close long-standing inequities that affect so many teens. 

I founded Teens for Vaccines when I was in seventh grade during the 2019 measles outbreaks. To me, it was shocking and gut-wrenching that children and teens in modern times still faced threats from the same diseases plaguing us 50 and even 100 years ago. Since then, I have been tirelessly advocating for every child’s right to life-saving vaccines and healthcare.

With the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging our communities for over two years now, routine vaccination rates have fallen to dangerous levels. We know that HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection, infecting about 13 million people, including teens, each year. There is undeniable evidence that left untreated, the HPV infection leads to cancer. Knowing that a safe and effective life-saving HPV vaccine is available—one that has saved millions of lives since 2006—we must protect every teen in California. 

It is time we take action. It is time we make reproductive health equity, and AB 659, a priority. 

We have tremendous leadership here in California and we have shown in the past that we can forge the path and set an example. It’s time to pass AB 659, Cancer Prevention Act, so we teens can live healthy and happy lives without worrying about HPV. I strongly urge the committee to vote Yes on the bill. Thank you." -- Arin Parsa

Recording of Assembly Health Committee hearings for April 18, 2023 can be found here.