TO: Massachusetts House Committee on Ways and Means
FROM: Harvard College Democrats
DATE: March 31st, 2022
Dear Chair Aaron Michlewitz, Vice Chair Ann-Margaret Ferrante, and members of the House Committee on Ways and Means,
My name is Syd Sanders, and I am the Legislative Director of the Harvard College Democrats. I am speaking on behalf of our organization in urging the House Committee on Ways and Means to support and report favorably on S.2730: An Act to increase access to disposable menstrual products.
S.2730 was reported favorably out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and subsequently passed in a 40-0 margin on the Senate floor. It has since been referred to House Ways and Means, where we hope that it will be reported favorably and continue through the legislative process.
The Harvard College Democrats support S.2730 because it requires shelters, public schools, prisons and jails to provide feminine hygiene products in a free and unstigmatized manner, an essential provision for reproductive health access across the Commonwealth.
Inequitable access to menstrual products is a critical issue in Massachusetts and across the country. In Massachusetts, 56% of school nurses have reported that they have observed students missing class to obtain period products (National Organization for Women). One in four students face period poverty, or an inability to access or afford menstrual products (PERIOD). There are racial disparities within these statistics - nearly a quarter of Latinx students report having to choose between period products and clothes or food, and half of Black and Latinx students report difficulties in completing school work due to difficulties obtaining menstrual products (PERIOD). Incarcerated individuals requiring menstrual products frequently have to beg or barter for menstrual products and struggle to pay for them in prison commissaries, an unnecessary and inhumane barrier for essential healthcare products. For homeless menstruators, this issue is even more acute. A quarter of temporary housing facilities like shelters report not being able to provide menstrual products, and houseless menstruators face infection from using menstrual products for too long or from makeshift, unsanitary products (National Organization for Women; American Civil Liberties Union).
S.2730 fills these unnecessary gaps and ensures that menstruators across Massachusetts are guaranteed menstrual products, an essential health care item, in a free and dignified way. The Harvard College Democrats urge the House Committee on Ways and Means to take up this legislation and report it favorably, following the Senate’s lead on getting this critical legislation passed.
Sincerely,
Harvard College Democrats
Harvard Undergraduate Women in Medicine
Please contact Syd Sanders, Legislative Director, at legislative@harvarddems.org with any questions.