Period Products Are Free in Scotland — Will They Ever Be in the US?

In response to a growing cost of living and stagnating progress for improvements to menstrual product access, Women for Independence, a grassroots political organization, launched the Free Period Scotland campaign in 2017. That same year, the government partnered with local charities to launch a pilot program in Aberdeen, Scotland, that made free menstrual products available. The launch was small — 100 government-funded boxes of tampons and pads were given away on the periphery of a food bank — but the program suggested the reality of an alternative Scotland, where women’s and girls’ menstrual needs could be freely met.

In February 2020, after positive results of the pilot program and growing national support, campaigners protested outside the Scottish Parliament. Member of Scottish Parliament Monica Lennon, who introduced a bill called the Period Products Act the previous year, led the protest. Backed by trade unions, women’s organizations, and charities, the campaign made national news. By late 2020, Scottish women became the first in the world able to access free period products thanks to the Period Products Act, which was unanimously approved. Now period products are available throughout Scottish public facilities.

The legislation has also recently been boosted by technology. The app “Pick Up My Period” was created by regional Scottish authorities and Hey Girls, a Scottish nonprofit fighting against period poverty, and launched in 2022. The app links women to over 700 venues throughout Scotland that provide free period products, including local councils, schools, and offices. Users can select a location as anyone does with food delivery, then go pick up the period products they need at no cost.

Despite great endorsement and public support in the country, other nations, including the United States, have yet to follow suit. Some objections include assumptions about affordability and ignorance about period poverty and about how the repeated inability to afford or access period products impacts girls' education and mental health. The reality is that in the U.S., where rising costs and taxes to period products increase costs, 42% of women struggle to afford menstrual products.

The greatest price of period poverty, however, is paid not only by individuals, who have no choice but to spend more on the products, but by nations, when women are put at medical and educational risk without access to sanitary menstrual products. In the U.K., for example, two-thirds of girls aged 14 to 21 have missed full or partial school days due to their menstrual cycle, which reduces their educational opportunities.

Now, almost three years after the Period Products Act first came into effect, Scotland remains the only country that provides free period products to all, although a number of organizations, such as the U.S.-based nonprofit Period and U.K.-based organization Period Poverty, advocate for free menstrual products. Some countries provide period products in schools, including the U.K., which provides them in state-run schools for girls aged 16 to 19, and Kenya, where schools have handed out sanitary pads to all school girls since 2017. In the United States, five states have passed legislation for free period products in schools.

To be fair, there have been problems with Scotland’s implementation of the Period Products Act. Less than half the funding allocated to councils for the Act was reportedly spent on provisions such as tampons in the past two years. For example, Dundee City Council in Eastern Scotland spent just £34,000 of their allocated £143,000 on period products over a 15-month period. How the rest of the funding was actually used is unclear.

Encouraging American policymakers to adopt legislation like the Period Products Act is only made more difficult without evidence of the legislation’s efficacy and with evidence of misuse of such funding. Regardless, Scots with access to period products they wouldn’t have before this act are undoubtedly grateful. As the country makes further strides against period poverty, one might wonder if people with periods in the U.S. will be left behind.