Public Access to Feminine Hygiene Products

(Newswire.net — January 4, 2018) Cheyenne, Wyoming — School clinics, public health centers and shelters are the most common places turned to for medical and hygienic guidance, and so it should be. However, many women and school aged girls are not being properly served by the system as an intrinsic gender need is typically overlooked, such as in the case of the provision of feminine hygiene products. 

With approximately 50,000 women living on the streets in the United States there ought to be a national support system which considers the menstrual needs of this disadvantaged portion of the population. Access to pad and tampons by way of shelters and public health care providers are so sporadic that homeless women are pressed to devise unsanitary means in order to tend to their sanitary problems. 

“In New York City, Kailah Willcuts [a 27 year old woman homeless for the past decade] says she washes up in public park bathrooms and goes to Starbucks for hot water and a water bottle to help with cramps,” reports Bustle. “She also crafts makeshift tampons from pads, because tampons keep her cleaner and are harder to come by, and she washes blood soaked socks in restaurant sinks.”                 

It is for reasons such as this that states are constructing various legislations to address this reoccurring issue women face each month. The city of New York has recently put forth a bill that promises to make feminine hygiene products readily available to an estimated 300,000 school girls and 23,000 women accommodated in public homeless shelters. 

“In a 49-0 vote, the council approved a measure that would make New York City the first in the United States to give all women in public schools, prisons and homeless shelters access to feminine hygiene products — free of charge,” reports the Washington Post. 

This initative is earmarked to distribute roughly 2 million tampons and 3.5 million pads per year to homeless shelters provided a budget of $2.5 million annually. This is a step in the right direction and hopefully other states will follow suit in considering women’s health and total hygienic wellness a priority in offering assistance. Such issues are also faced in the public school system as many students can’t afford pads and tampons hence are often absent from lessons. 

“From students who will no longer miss class because they do not have a pad or tampon, to mothers at shelters and women in prison who will have access to these critical yet often overlooked products, this package makes our city a fairer place,” declared Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, New York City Council Member. 

Feminine hygiene products should not be considered a luxury item. Hopefully, other states will pass similar bills to better serve their residents. Gynecologist recommended products like the HealthyWiser™ Femme-Fresh™ vaginal suppository should be standard products provided to balance pH, prevent malodor and relieve irritations.