Guest column: Now is the time to pass I AM Bill

Imagine you’re sitting at a high school graduation ceremony awaiting your turn to cross the stage and receive your diploma when a familiar and unsettling feeling washes over you: your period starting.

You only have a few moments before you’re expected to stand up in front of hundreds of people, risking leaving a bright red stain on your chair and gown. You panic as you scan the room for a solution. But alas, nobody around you has a spare tampon on them and no bathrooms nearby have products either.

You know that the bathroom will definitely have toilet paper so you could wad up some one-ply toilet paper to use during the ceremony until you can stop at a pharmacy on the drive home, but last time you did that, you still leaked all over your jeans. Today was supposed to be a celebration as you begin the next chapter of your life, not one stained by discomfort and worry.

The proposed I AM Bill, “An Act to Increase Access to Menstrual Products,” is crucial to prevent such distress across Massachusetts. This bill mandates public schools, shelters and prisons to provide menstrual products to all menstruating individuals without stigma.

“Menstruating individual” is intentionally used, acknowledging the fact that not all who menstruate are women and not all women menstruate. It emphasizes the need for accessible products for all menstruators, regardless of gender identity and where they spend their time.

Massachusetts is a powerhouse for education, health care and equity within a current nationwide surge of attacks on reproductive rights and sex education, which includes menstruation. Still, we need to do more.

While Massachusetts serves as a beacon for reproductive rights, menstruation is often forgotten in these discussions. How can we claim to be advancing reproductive justice if we are not making menstrual management accessible to everyone? While other states are working to ban topics like menstruation in classrooms, shouldn’t we be doing everything we can to destigmatize it in our schools? We have an example to set and an obligation to advance menstrual equity here.

Research has shown that menstruating individuals throughout the state struggle to afford and access period products, not only in schools. A study conducted by Mass NOW found that 25% of homeless shelters do not provide menstrual products, leaving many in need unsupported. Menstruators experiencing homelessness also cannot use SNAP benefits for menstrual products, making it extremely difficult to access or afford the products they need.

Access to menstrual products isn’t guaranteed in incarcerated facilities either; products are not provided alongside other necessities, are often restricted and are used as a means of control and coercion. Most incarcerated menstruators frequently must purchase products at the commissary, which can cost upward of $10 for one box of super tampons, some of the most expensive items among nearly 400 items for sale. No person should have to work for several days just to be able to maintain their health with dignity.

H.534 would allow students to avoid the experience described above, and all menstruators would be able to receive their diploma without worry and with dignity. Nobody should have to stress about how they’re going to manage their period without products when all other bathroom hygiene necessities are provided: toilet paper, soap, water.

Now is the time to pass the I AM Bill. This legislation has been proposed in the state Legislature for three consecutive legislative sessions and currently awaits a vote in the House Ways and Means Committee despite overwhelming support. Critics point to its cost, yet where is this opposition when discussing the expenses of toilet paper? It’s a distraction and an attempt to undermine the rights of menstruators.

Now is the time for us to act: Call your representatives, sign the student petitions, join the MME Coalition and advocate for this bill to everyone you know to ensure it’s finally implemented. Massachusetts policy currently falls short in addressing menstruators’ needs. The I AM Bill presents an opportunity to change that. Will you help us?

Kristianna Lapierre is a senior at Brandeis University studying sociology, gender studies, social policy and legal studies who has been advocating for menstrual equity in the Massachusetts Legislature. She can be contacted at klapierre@brandeis.edu.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Kristianna Lapierre on Massachusetts I AM Bill on menstrual products