The debate about making menstrual products free continues to be a struggle across the world. A growing number of people want them to be free because it won’t make women struggle throughout their lives, while the government and companies want to market off of it. Menstrual products should be free because they are a necessity, not a luxury, and the government needs to hear that. If the government makes period products free for women, they will not have to worry about finding a replacement for pads or tampons, freeing up their paycheck for other important needs. 

Food stamps are used for many necessities in the United States that people cannot afford. However, for menstrual products, there are rarely any coupons for women because people think they should be marketed for women to suffer without cause. The best way to make progress is by passing legislation that puts them on the food stamp program, making them cheaper, but also having a small fee. This would help women and girls who are in poverty spend little to almost no money for them and the government get their pay. Farid acknowledges that “Unfortunately, food stamps and subsidies under the WIC (women, infants, and children) program that help with groceries do not cover menstrual products.”

One of the many reasons why menstrual products should be free across the nation is because it is a necessity. What this means is that periods shouldn’t be marketed on, they should be free because it’s something that women do not have control over like many other bodily functions like pregnancy or menopause. Next, women in poverty think that menstrual products are a luxury, Farid found that women in poverty use toilet paper or paper towels instead of pads or tampons because they cannot afford menstrual products. Poor women shouldn’t worry about their period more than trying to find a home, job or food for themselves. But that’s the case in America because the government and many of the other industries want to profit off the lower ranking to get more money instead of sharing it. They would rather profit off a necessity than a luxury. 

Another case for this is many infections or causes that can happen if you don’t have any menstrual products. Kumar researched that “in India, 70% of all reproductive diseases are caused by poor menstrual hygiene, directly related to inaccessibility to products.” Many diseases or infections can be caused by either little to none of these items women need. One case is Toxic Shock Syndrome, an infection. This infection may be rare but it is life-threatening, if women leave a tampon or menstrual cup in the uterus for too long (In this case for 8 hours) a rash that feels like a sunburn spreads throughout the vagina.

The symptoms throughout the body will feel like a fatal fever, and sadly this infection will not go away on its own. You must be given medication or surgery, but if you’re one of the many women who are poor you cannot afford this. You are not going to be able to get treatment. But women in poverty, when they are able to afford menstrual products, have to use them as much as they can, which leads to many cases of unhygienic uterus diseases, whether sexually transmitted or just unhygienic or in this case TSS. 

Then another thing that can happen with a poorly hygienic uterus is if women have sex with anyone. In most cases, they are most likely to have STDs (Sexually-Transmitted Diseases) or STIs (Sexually-Transmitted Infections) with an unhygienic uterus because many women cannot afford hygienic products for their uterus. This causes many women and men they sleep with to have diseases throughout the globe making STDs and STIs a common thing. Kohl states that “The World Health Organization (WHO) has been responsible for surveying problems represented by STDs and HIV infection. It estimates an annual total of 333 million new STD infections in adults.” 

In schools and jobs, most girls or women have to worry that they brought their own products instead of paying for them in the bathroom which costs 25 cents to a dollar just for a pad or tampon that should be free. Luckily people in the school and job industries make them free in the bathrooms, giving women and girls relaxation and no stress over digging through their stuff to find a tampon or pad. A website source named Citron Hygiene discovered that “70.6% of women would choose to spend money at a business that provided free period products over one that didn’t and 70.8% of women said that it’s important for employers to provide employees with free period products.”

Luckily many people across the world have taken a stance to make menstrual items free globally. Scotland is a country that has made it possible for women to have free menstrual products. Hopefully, if we were able to have period products free around the world, women wouldn’t have to worry about their period and focus on getting a job, a house or many other things. But if this doesn’t work more and more women will be in poverty because they need something that the world profits off of. In America, many are taking a stance to make menstrual products free but sadly Kumar found that “Only eight states in the U.S. have proposed legislative measures to remove taxes on tampons and pads for women, while in Canada, the federal sales tax on these products has been abolished; however, access to them continues to be unequal. This makes women in poverty find it hard to get this product.”