Scotland Becomes First Country To Provide Period Products freely available to all who need them. The Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill, designed to create a legal obligation for the government to ensure sanitary products are free and accessible for all who menstruate, including tampons and pads in public facilities nationwide.
Under the period products (free provision) (Scotland) Bill, the Scottish government will be required to set up a nationwide scheme to allow anyone who needs period products to get them free of charge. Further, it will also require schools, colleges, and universities to make a range of period products available for free. The bill’s financial memorandum estimates it could cost around £8.7 million a year by 2022, depending on the number of women who will take advantage of the free products, as per CNN.
The Bill was introduced by Scottish Parliament member Monica Lennon, who has been campaigning to end period poverty since 2016. After the vote, Monica Lennon said the decision was “a signal to the world that free universal access to period products can be achieved.”
Because periods don’t stop in a pandemic, we didn’t give up. The final vote on the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill is on Tuesday. 💪🩸#freeperiodproducts
Thank you to every single person who has made this possible. ❤️
Latest news 👉https://t.co/jEmCiyjLe1 pic.twitter.com/fe5TFYrsOP
— Monica Lennon (@MonicaLennon7) November 22, 2020
“Periods don’t stop for pandemics and the work to improve access to essential tampons, pads and reusables have never been more important,” she added. Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, posted on Twitter shortly after the vote on Tuesday evening that she was “proud to vote for this groundbreaking legislation” and congratulated Monica Lennon.