Thread by @leslieherod

Today, our bill to provide free menstrual hygiene products to students passed the house on second reading! @BriannaForCO #SB255 #coleg #copolitics #EndPeriodPoverty

The average menstruating person uses more than 18 tampons per cycle and uses 12,000-15,000 pads, tampons, and panty liners in their lifetime. Folks who menstruate spend a lifetime average of $11,000 on tampons alone, excluding other menstrual care expenses. #SB255

This financial burden is unfairly leveled on women and menstruating folks and, arguably, more unfairly leveled on young people. The result: Twenty percent of teens struggle to afford period products or are not able to purchase them at all.

Lack of free access to menstrual hygiene products doesn’t only create a financial burden, it puts students’ health in danger. Wearing products such as tampons for too long puts you at risk for toxic shock syndrome - a life threatening condition.

Lack of access to these products is all consuming. Not only does it impact folks’ finances and physical health - it impacts their mental health and student’s ability to learn. Two-thirds of students have felt significant stress due to lack of access to period products.

In 2017, the BBC reported that nearly half of 14-to-21-year-olds have missed an entire day of school because of their period. More than 4 in 5 teens have either missed class time or know someone who missed class time because they did not have access to period products.

Our bill addresses the financial, emotional, mental, & physical repercussions that stem from a lack of access to menstrual products by creating a grant program for public schools/districts to purchase menstrual hygiene products for their bathrooms

We know that a lack of access to pads or tampons puts students at risk in a multitude of ways. Menstrual hygiene products ARE essential health products. It’s time that we ensure that, just like their non-menstruating peers, students have everything they need in school bathrooms.