Council member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland and Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito proposed comprehensive legislation yesterday that would require all city public schools, homeless shelters and jails to provide girls and women with tampons and pads.
“When over half of New York City’s residents experience menstruation, it is crucial to acknowledge their needs and show value and respect for their bodies by making menstrual hygiene products widely and easily available,” Ferreras-Copeland said in a statement.
“No student, homeless individual or inmate should have to jump through hoops, face illness or feel humiliated because they cannot access pads or tampons,” she added, saying her legislation “brings dignity” to menstruation.
Currently, the city’s Department of Correction provides only 144 sanitary napkins per week per 50 inmates and offers brand name napkins in its commissary, according to the City Council.
Ferreras-Copeland, Mark-Viverito and Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez are also sending a resolution to the the State Senate in support of abolishing the New York sales tax on menstrual products.
Thanks to legislation by Ferreras-Copeland (who also captained an effort to get free sanitary products into 25 Bronx and Queens schools) and activism against “the tampon tax,” “menstrual equity is now part of the national dialogue,” said Racket Co-Founder Margo Seibert, one of five women who filed a lawsuit against the State Department of Taxation and Finance challenging taxes levied on feminine hygiene products.
