Why Menstrual Products Should be Free. Period.

By Tess Schijvenaars

On Tuesday November 24^th, 2020, the Scottish Parliament unanimously approved ‘The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill’ making Scotland the first country in the world to battle period poverty and legally oblige its local authorities to provide free tampons and period pads to “anyone who needs them”.[1] Monica Lennon, Scottish Member of Parliament and the initiator of this piece of legislation, explains that improving access to “essential tampons, pads, and reusables has never been more important” as during this current global COVID pandemic. The question is, however, why it has taken so long for a national government to subsidize menstrual product and why Scotland is still the only one? Free access to sanitary products for every girl and woman should be granted globally. Period. These are some of the reasons why.

Period Poverty

Period poverty is increasingly becoming a recognized issue, part of a complex cycle of poverty. Many low-income women are unable to afford period products and as a result cannot avoid bleeding into their clothes, let alone replacing stained clothes. Imagine finally getting a job interview and being forced to improvise some kind of bleeding protection using an old piece of cloth or sock in order to avoid getting blood stains in front of your potential boss.[2] It is not difficult to imagine the embarrassment and humiliation. Consequently, women are more likely to stay at home when on their period preventing them from participating in public life, such as education as well as working life, which by extension undermines their opportunities.

A cross-sectional study performed by researchers from Saint Louis University in 2019 conducted between July 2017 and March 2018, demonstrates that about 64% of their participation pool, drawn from American community organizations, were unable to afford “needed menstrual supplies during the previous year”.[3] About 21% of the respondents experienced this financial deficiency monthly and reported the use of “rags, cloths, tissues, toilet paper, children’s diapers or paper towels from public bathrooms”.[4] Furthermore, about 46% of the women included in their research were unable to afford both menstrual products and food during the past year, forcing women to choose between two basic human needs.[5]

Bring Your Own Tampon Policy

Imagine having to carry around toilet paper all day, just in case you have to visit a public bathroom. This seems absurd, and it is, since toilet paper is considered a necessity in order to regulate “unavoidable body functions”.[6] Yet, for a considerable part of their lives, women are expected to carry around tampons and pads at all time in case of emergencies. This is considered common sense, whereas carrying around a roll of toilet paper all day would be considered ridiculous. The “Bring Your Own Tampon (BYOT) policy”, a reality across the globe, should therefore be considered a human rights violation.

Violation of Human Rights

The management of periods is important to the health, education, well-being, and overall success of women across the world. Like access to toilet paper and bathrooms, menstrual hygiene is also a matter connected to human rights. However, unlike toilet paper, menstrual products are treated like luxury goods. As if women have the ‘luxury’ to choose whether they want to menstruate or not. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of society is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”.[7] Accordingly, the limited access to menstrual products forces a considerable portion of the female world population into seclusion negatively impacting the human rights to education, work, health, sanitation, and equality.

Shouldn’t Everything be Free Then?

Yet, is it fair to use taxpayer’s money to provide menstrual products which only approximately half of the population can and will use. Should men also bear the economic costs of the government subsidizing menstrual products, if they will not be using them? Wouldn’t stores go bankrupt if period products will be made free? Shouldn’t then perhaps water be free as well since it is indispensable for bodily processes to function? Shouldn’t everything be free following this line of argumentation?

Bridging Inequalities

While some of these arguments ring true to a certain extent, period poverty creates a systematic opportunity gap between men and women. By providing free menstrual products, such systemic inequalities can be bridged. Additionally, we should not forget that food and water shortages are often covered by free food assistance services, whereas menstrual products are not part of any poverty relieve program or organization: they are a luxury. If toilet paper in public bathrooms is not behind a paid vending machine, tampons and pads shouldn’t either. Period.

[1] Claire Diamond, “Period Poverty: Scotland First in World to Make Period Products Free,” BBC, November 25, 2020.

[2] Sean Valles, “Recognizing Menstrual Supplies as Basic Health Necessities: The Bioethics of #FreePeriods,” MSU Bioethics, November 1, 2018.

[3] Anne Severt Kuhlmann, Eleanor Peters Bergquist, Djenie Danjoing, and L. Lewis Wall, “Unmet Menstrual Hygiene Needs Among Low-Income Women,” Obstetrics & Gynecology 1, no. 1 (2019), 1.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Elizabeth Montano, “The Bring Your Own Tampon Policy: Why Menstrual Hygiene Products Should Be Provided for Free in Restrooms,” University of Miami Law Review 73, no. 1 (2018), 385.

[7] G.A. Res (III) A, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10, 1948.