Mass. Senate unanimously passes bill to provide feminine hygiene products in restrooms

BOSTON - A bill to make feminine hygiene products available for free in certain publicly funded restrooms — in public schools, in group homes and shelters, and in prisons and jails — unanimously passed the Massachusetts Senate on Thursday.

"Roughly 50% of Massachusetts residents menstruate and they are offered zero support by the state," said Senate President Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, who championed the bill. "Pads and tampons are not luxuries; they are necessities."

One in seven children live in poverty in Massachusetts and their families struggle to pay for the products, Spilka said.

It was the second time the legislation passed unanimously in the Senate. A similar measure never received a vote in the House the prior session.

Advocates are more confident about its prospects of becoming law this session, saying its early passage boded well for them, giving more time to prod House members to get it passed.

The sponsor of the Senate bill, Sen. Patricia Jehlen, D-Somerville, admitted that she had never thought about the importance of ensuring the products are available in public schools until students in her district, from Somerville and Medford, approached her to discuss the lack of access to free menstrual products at their schools.

Students in both districts worked for years to call attention to the issue. They organized drives to collect and stock their bathrooms with tampons and pads. Both districts now have a policy that ensures all students who need them have access.

"Representation makes a difference," Jehlen said, pointing out that the state Legislature is 31% women. Two of the five measures endorsed for passage this session by the Women's Legislative Caucus — the other being a pay equity and wage transparency bill — have already been passed by the Senate.

"Apart from the budgets, these are the most substantive bills to come out of this session so far," Jehlen said.

Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, called access to free menstrual products a public health issue.

"If men could menstruate, these products would be obligatory in public restrooms and free like toilet paper," Cyr said.

Sasha Goodfriend, executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization for Women, commended the young women who helped shine a light in the issue.

"Many young women are not ready to discuss periods at the State House, talk with people who have never menstruated," Goodfriend said, adding that she is gratified that, if the bill passes both houses and is signed into law by the governor, people will no longer have to devise makeshift solutions.

"Toilet paper is not a menstrual product," she noted.

Goodfriend noted that 20 other states, the latest being New Jersey, have passed similar legislation making menstrual products available for free in certain publicly funded bathrooms. The Massachusetts legislation is more comprehensive and includes language that prohibits stigmatizing anyone seeking the products.

"Massachusetts is falling behind," Goodfriend said.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Mass. Senate passes bill to make period products free in restrooms