The 2017 Lasker Awards gave a boost to Planned Parenthood, the controversial nonprofit organization known for providing reproductive healthcare worldwide.
Planned Parenthood won the 2017 Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award "for providing essential health services and reproductive care to millions of women for more than a century," the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced Tuesday.
It was one of three awards the organization announced. It also gave the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award to Michael N. Hall of the Biozentrum of the University of Basel for discoveries related to diabetes, cancer and other disorders. Douglas R. Lowy and John T. Schiller of the National Cancer Institute received the 2017 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for advances in the development of vaccines to prevent cervical cancer.
The awards comes just months after Planned Parenthood was in headlines for refusing to put a halt on abortions — something President Donald Trump had urged the organization to do in March if they wanted to continue receiving funding, according to The Washington Times.
Even though the organization receives $500 million a year from the government to provide healthcare services to women, Planned Parenthood rejected Trump's informal proposal amid his plans to repeal and replace "Obamacare."
Each of the Lasker Awards comes with a $250,000 payment, the Los Angeles Times noted.
Services provided by Planned Parenthood include birth control, breast examinations, pap tests, and testing and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, and basic medical care.
"Approximately one in five women in the U.S. have received its assistance at some point during their lives," the Lasker Foundation said in giving out the award. "Without Planned Parenthood, many individuals would not have access to high-quality and affordable health care."
Douglas Lowy, the National Cancer Institute's acting director, and researcher John Schiller played key roles in the development of vaccines that have the ability to prevent cervical cancer, The Washington Post noted.
Cervical cancer is responsible for the deaths of 250,000 women around the world each year. However, after Lowy and Schiller's work that led to the development of new vaccines, that number is expected to see a significant decline.
"They devised a blueprint for several safe and effective vaccines that promise to slash the incidence of cervical cancer and mortality," the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation said.
Hall, a molecular biologist, discovered TOR proteins involved in cell growth. His research has medical implications for numerous pathological conditions including cancers.
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