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Did you know that on average, a woman spends $20 a month on period products? Alicia F.R. makes a powerful argument that feminine hygiene products should be free in public bathrooms and beyond.
How you can make an IMP∆CT:
Flo Code is an organization in the Texas community donating more than 500,000 menstrual products to nonprofits, shelters, schools and natural disaster victims. Flo Code focus on health, education and social injustice in Austin and beyond. The organization also strives to educate, by bringing awareness to and ending the stigma of menstruation in society. You can volunteer by attending a Flo Party to package donated feminine hygiene products or you can make a financial donation. Your money would provide free access to menstrual products to those in need as well as funding an educational program to empower families to educate adolescents about reproductive health. This organization also advocates for waiving the sales taxes on menstrual products. Learn more at flocode.org or by clicking on the icon above.
Source: Amplify Austin
By Alicia F. R.
All women go through their menstrual cycle also known as their period. In almost no public restrooms are pads or tampons free. Sometimes women can start their period without expecting it. If you are in this dilemma, it's pretty frustrating to go into a bathroom where the pads and tampons are sold for a quarter. Who has a quarter on them when they go to the bathroom?
Feminine hygiene products should be free in public bathrooms. These products are as essential as toilet paper, and toilet paper is free. It's a necessary thing; therefore, it is free. For women tampons and pads are necessary. It's called unhygienic to not have them or not be able to change them every 3 hours. The argument can be made that women are supposed to have our products on them at all times. But would we expect everyone to have toilet paper on them at all times?
Free tampons in public restrooms would especially help women that are experiencing poverty. No woman or girl should have to walk around in their own blood without proper period products. Women are half our world's population. So if these very necessary items were free, it would be helping half the population. The average woman spends $20 on feminine hygiene products per menstrual cycle, according to estimates from the National Organization of Women. Why should women have this extra financial burden? This is a gender equality issue and needs to be solved on a world-wide level. At the very least, period products should be free in public bathrooms.
Dr. Huma Farid, a doctor at Harvard Medical School, wrote an article saying that she has had patients tell her they use paper towels instead of pads because they can't afford pads or tampons. She also said that some of her patients come to her with vulvar irritation and vaginal discomfort due to keeping tampons in for too long to save them money. This is a health issue. This is a fairness issue. Let's make period products free in public bathrooms and beyond.
"Menstruating is a basic fact of human existence. Menstrual hygiene products are necessities, not luxuries, and should be treated as such."
— Dr. Huma Farid, obstetrician/gynecologist and an instructor in obstetrics and gynecology at Harvard Medical School
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