Scotland mandates free period products

Scotland became the first country in the world to establish a legal right for its citizens to obtain free menstrual products after new landmark legislation took effect yesterday.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 More deets… The Period Products Act, which was approved unanimously, requires all public settings – including colleges and universities – to house free items such as tampons and sanitary pads for "anyone who needs them."

• Since 2017, Scotland’s government has spent ~$33 million providing menstrual products free of charge at all education providers across the country, per the BBC.
• ​​A 2018 study found one in four school-aged women in Scotland had faced period poverty at some point in their lifetime.

🇺🇸 Closer to home: Six US states currently mandate free menstrual products in all public schools: California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, and Vermont.

• There’s also a growing campaign to eliminate taxes on menstrual products in the US. Nonprofit Period Equity estimates 26 states currently have a “tampon tax,” aka a tax treating menstrual products as non-essential items, which brings in a collective ~$120 million in annual revenue.