Why Period Products should free in England too

Scotland is the first country in the world to offer free period products to its citizens. The nation made waves this week for stocking free sanitary products in its pharmacies and community centres

Labour MSP Monica Lennon introduced the Period Poverty bill in 2016, championing the cause tackling the cost of living crisis. In 2017 it was found by Plan international UK  that 1 in 10 girls were unable to afford sanitary products.

Tina Leslie, founder of Freedom4Girls, a registered UK charity fighting period poverty, spoke to BirminghamWorld about why this decision is so important and why it should be introduced in our city and others across the UK.

Tina Leslie said:  “It is always great to hear governments bringing the ever increasing issue of period poverty into the forefront of policy. Let’s hope that the UK government follows suit with reactivation of the period poverty task force ( which freedom4girls were a part) with the £250k the government promised in 2019 to tackle the issue .”

Charities like Freedom4Girls are in support of Scotland prioritising free provision of period products. Leslie said: “Freedom4girls are delighted and it’s a massive step forward in the fight to support the end of suffering the indignity and shame period poverty brings. People are having to make difficult choices because of the cost of living crisis . This bill will elevate some of those issues although there is still a big issue around stigma and taboo. Well done Scotland!”

Tina with FreedomGirls has been campaigning for seven years to challenge the period poverty in Britain. She said: “The only way we could follow suit with Scotland is capaign with other organisations and people for the government to change policies in other countries worldwide.” Tina hopes that with Scotland being the first country to make period products free other countries will follow suit.

Speaking to the general public of Birmingham, it was found that all we spoke to were in the support of this new bill.

Some suggested the use of biodegradable products and were largely in support of the government prioritising making period products widely accessible.

In the least, the public are advocating for menstrual hygiene products to be free and available in all public bathrooms. Tamara, a member of the public advocating to tackle period poverty spoke to Birmingham World.

Tamara said: “ I feel that sanitary towels should be free, purely for the fact that this is something us women have to go through on a monthly basis and it’s something that we don’t choose to have. It’s something that we have to go through. It should be free because of the rise of the cost of living, not a lot of families are fortunate enough to buy period products.

I feel quite strongly that period products should be free as you have younger girls that are coming from deprived families and are embarrassed because they have to choose whether they want to go outside or not as they don’t have the ability to fund sanitary towels themselves.

She said : “It should be free for all women from all backgrounds…It’s very important that we give everybody the same opportunity to live comfortably and freely.”

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