TSR Politics: California public schools and colleges will be required to stock their restrooms with free menstrual products under a bill signed today by Governor Gavin Newsom.
This new law builds on a 2017 one that requires low-income schools in disadvantaged areas to provide students with free menstrual products, according to the Associated Press.
This new bill expands the law to include grades 6 to 12, community colleges and the California State University and University of California systems, starting in the 2022-23 school year. The bill also encourages private schools and colleges to follow suit.
“Our biology doesn’t always send an advanced warning when we’re about to start menstruating, which often means we need to stop whatever we’re doing and deal with a period,” Democratic Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia said about her legislation. “Just as toilet paper and paper towels are provided in virtually every public [bathroom], so should menstrual products.”
California is not alone in this movement. Purdue University in Indiana decided last year to offer free feminine hygiene products in its campus bathrooms.
“California joins a growing number of states who lead the way in demonstrating that menstrual equity is a matter of human rights,” the advocacy group PERIOD said in a statement. “No student should ever lose learning time due to their periods, period.”
California also previously repealed a tax on menstrual products that was costing women an estimated aggregate $20 million a year.
Newsom has had a busy week. He’s signed several other bills into law including one that outlaws nonconsensual condom removal, which was lauded by many.
He also signed a bill that will provide mothers access to postpartum care and doula services.
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