By Cara Tenenbaum
Despite the need for period products among all who menstruate, there are few policies addressing the associated financial burdens.
Monthly menstrual product expenses average $13.25 per month, according to one survey. These costs are prohibitive for some, contributing to the phenomenon known as “period poverty,” which describes a lack of access to period products due to cost.
Period poverty, like so many other health inequities, has gotten worse during the Coronavirus pandemic. This post addresses the challenges and opportunities to address period poverty at federal, state, and local levels.
Federal Response
As part of the coronavirus relief package in 2020, menstrual products were deemed eligible to be purchased with health savings account money. This means that people with an HSA can use those funds, pre-tax, for supplies like pads and tampons. But programs like SNAP and WIC do not cover menstrual products, although they are obvious necessities.
One important function of the federal government is disaster relief. But menstrual hygiene management, a relatively new term, is not well addressed in disaster management. For example, Red Cross doesn’t include feminine hygiene products on their list of necessary supplies, though FEMA does suggest that people include it in their own emergency supplies. Numerous stories from hurricane-stricken New Orleans and Texas show that women did not have access to necessary menstrual products.
Federal prisons only recently (in 2018) made period products free; and while some states and cities have similar laws regarding access to menstrual products, the implementation has not been smooth. Prior to these initiatives, inmates had to pay for tampons and pads from the commissary at a markup (and many still do). More than one report has shown commissary prices for tampons to be at least twice that of retailers; not to mention all the other basic necessities like soap and shampoo that inmates, who earn a fraction of minimum wage for their labor, must purchase.
State Actions
States have control over sales tax, schools, prisons, and numerous other areas of interest. The majority of states continue to apply sales tax to tampons, while most medical products are not taxed. This burden makes up part of what is referred to as the “pink tax,” which can add up to thousands of dollars over a lifetime.
Some states have required schools to make period products available and free. While the majority of states do not have such policies in place, currently there is a wave of activism around the cause.
Solutions
Historically, menstrual products have not been well understood or supplied by federal agencies. Famously, NASA proposed sending Sally Ride into space with 100 tampons for a six day trip. And it was in only in 2019 that Members of the House of Representatives were allowed to use office funds for tampons; women make up 45 percent of House staff. It wasn’t until the Obama Administration that a tampon dispenser was installed in the women’s restroom in the West Wing.
Large and small steps are possible and necessary to promote equity and access to menstrual products. If passed, the Menstrual Equity for All Act (2019) would, in part, require that students, inmates and detainees, as well as employees in large companies, be provided with menstrual products. Ensuring that menstrual products are tax-free is a small and do-able state action. Including menstrual products in federal assistance programs should be a no-brainer. Having tampons in schools and workplaces would make life easier for countless people.
And bigger steps can be taken. The U.S. could follow the lead of Scotland, which, in November 2020, became the first country to make period products free. The U.S., of course, has different health care and tax systems from Scotland. Nonetheless, it would behoove us, as a society, to ensure that people, especially those of limited financial means, have access to necessary hygienic products for their menstrual cycles.
