MA advocate groups are calling legislators to ensure equal access to menstrual products

When women and girls don’t have access to menstrual products, they have to “just bleed and pray” that their pants will hold. Many in Massachusetts are forced to use toilet paper as a substitute for period products.

“I think it's a matter of dignity and allowing menstruators to have the option to not have to free bleed or just giving them that bodily autonomy of how they want to deal with their periods,” said Olivia Toscano, the community organizing co-op of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization for Women.

Advocacy groups in Massachusetts such as MassNOW are calling on House lawmakers to pass the I AM bill, to ensure access to free menstrual products, without stigma, to all women and girls in all public schools, homeless shelters, prisons, and county jails.

“It’s about making sure that these products which are part of health care, which a part of our life, are available," said Sen. Robyn Kennedy, D-Worcester, one of the sponsors of the bill." "It’s a basic need that all menstruating individuals have. And it’s about making sure that those products for that care are available to all individuals to help break down the disparities.”

How much spent on feminine hygiene products?

The average woman spends about $20 on feminine hygiene products per cycle, adding up to about $18,000 over a lifetime, according to estimates from the National Organization of Women.

“It costs a lot to buy these products," said Toscano. "There are menstruators out there who have to choose between food, rent, and menstrual products. That’s not a choice that should have to be made. I think we need to stop looking at it as a luxury; it’s a necessity.”

In October, the Senate passed the I AM bill, originally introduced in 2019, but it has not yet been passed in the House.

Kate Barker Swindell, Service & Operations Manager of PERIOD. said Massachusetts has done some work, but it could do better.

The Alliance for Period Supplies reports that Massachusetts is considering nine bills related to menstrual access, while New Jersey leads with a total of 24 bills.

Rep. Natalie Higgins, D-Leominster, said the bill is “critical” because menstrual products are essential, but they are too expensive for many, especially those in schools, prisons, and shelters.

“I think I AM Bill really focuses on some of the places where institutionally there can be access issues. So starting with our schools, starting with our shelters, and starting with our jails and prisons, makes a lot of sense,” she said.

Kyla Speizer, the community organizer of MassNOW, said the measure is the first in the country to call for providing free menstrual products for all three places: schools, shelters and jails.

“Those three places are some of the places that period poverty is shown the most, so they are some of the most vulnerable populations,” she said.

Lack of education and awareness

“I've been working with public schools, libraries, and just connecting with either the head of the department to kind of see what is the need, who actually needs these products and supplying these products,'' said Magdelene Barjolo, the Worcester regional organizer of MassNOW.  When people donate to the needy, they think first of food and clothing, she said.

"Menstrual products are not a part of the conversation,” she said

PERIOD’s Swindell said through years of advocacy the conversations and the attention around the problem is “growing exponentially,” but the stigma is still a real thing.

“I will say that's across all ages, all races, all cultures, all religions. It's like universal," she said.

As of right now, Barjolo said she hasn't seen any schools implement the concept of period poverty within their curriculum. "They kind of steer away from it," she said.

Even when menstrual products are provided in some places, the stigma creates “an extra barrier” for people who need them, Speizer said

“They're afraid to ask for a menstrual product or they're afraid to take a day off of work when they are having really bad cramps. Maybe they have a mental disorder and they can't make it to work that day, or whatever it is,” she said. “The stigma is something that prevents a lot of folks from maybe achieving their goals.”

Grassroots organizing looks to meet interim needs

In December, Worcester City Manager Eric Batista said he was going to implement the first phase of providing free menstrual products within public spaces in the city early this year.

Barjolo said before anything happens, grassroots organizers will provide communities and public spaces with products.

“A lot of people have said something of what their initiatives are going to do in terms of menstrual health,” she said. “We're actually doing the work aside from waiting for elected officials to do what they can do.”

Ali Civilikas, vice president of Menstrual Equity Alliance, a Clark University-affiliated student-led club, said the Alliance installed nine dispensers for menstrual products in school two years ago, and hand-fill those dispensers once a month.

“We just keep pads and tampons on us usually, and whoever has time to go around and fill them,” she said.

In an email, Lesa McWalters, social justice chair of First Unitarian Church of Worcester, said parishioners have set up a subscription to purchase pads each month (at $300 per month) and distribute them to sheltered women.

“There are approximately 100 women and teens in that shelter, and since SNAP benefits do not cover feminine products we have begun a program called Sister-to-Sister Cycle Connection at our church,” she wrote in the email. “This is a very basic need, and legislation should change the qualification of pads from a "luxury item" to a basic human right to have access to free feminine products as part of the SNAP benefits.”

Consistent supply can be an issue

Many school districts, lockups and shelters already provide free menstrual products, but consistently providing them can be challenging, Speizer said.

“Many of them do offer it for free or have procedures in place to offer it, but maybe they don’t have the stable resources to be consistently offering it,” she said.

As a student-led club, Menstrual Equity Alliance has struggled working with school administration and getting it to help fund clean menstrual products on campus, Civilikas said.

“I don't think they've ever provided free menstrual products like we are right now.” she said.

According to the Alliance for Period Supplies, in the past three years, nine states passed laws to require and fund schools to provide period products. That does not include Massachusetts.

Kennedy said the bill would make sure that they're required to be provided and that there's funding available.

“This bill, and the additional work we need to do is really making sure that those products are available holistically and automatically for all individuals to be able to access,” she said.

Only a few people to help

Not having enough labor can also create an issue for grassroots or student-led organizations that depend on members to keep doing the work.

“It can be like logistically very difficult to deal with so much product and so much distribution that needs to happen with only a few people who have the ability to do this kind of thing full time,” Toscano said. “With the state stepping in, it'll fix those problems.”

This is the third session since the I AM bill was first introduced, and it’s approaching the last few months of the second year of this legislative session. Speizer said the biggest hurdle is not lack of support, but making the bill a top priority for legislators.

“This is a bipartisan bill that everyone supports for the most part, but the issue is just making sure that it’s the number one priority for enough legislators that it gets passed quickly,” she said.

Higgins said she doesn’t have a projected timeline for the bill, but hopes the measure gets through the House and onto the governor’s desk.

“We're getting so close to the end of the session that we're not maybe as confident as we were six months ago. But we're really proud of how far it's come this session and proud of the work that has been done by everyone involved,” Speizer said. “At this point, it's just did our efforts make as much of a difference as we wanted to or will we be trying again next year? It's really hard to know.”

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Some women have to choose between food, rent and menstrual products