A student equips school bathrooms with free pads and tampons to promote menstrual equality, at Justice High School in Falls Church, Va., in 2019.
Alastair Pike / AFP via Getty Images
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Alastair Pike / AFP via Getty Images
A student equips school bathrooms with free pads and tampons to promote menstrual equality, at Justice High School in Falls Church, Va., in 2019.
Alastair Pike / AFP via Getty Images
Ann Arbor will require all public restrooms in the city to carry menstrual products in one law effective in January.
That means pads and tampons, as well as soap and toilet paper, will have to be freely available in every public restroom throughout Michigan.
“We as a society, for too long, have not taken menstruation seriously,” Christopher Taylor Mayor Ann Arbor told NPR. “Access to menstrual products is a basic human need.”
Some US states and cities have offer free menstrual products at certain locations, such as schools and homeless shelters, but Taylor said he believes Ann Arbor is the first authority to require them at all restrooms public.
“It’s a matter of fairness and individual dignity,” he said. “I’m glad we’ve been able to provide public goods at a low cost.”
Last year, Scotland be the first country to provide free menstrual products.
Taylor said he proposed the ordinance after hearing from a high school student who was concerned that people without a stable place of residence would have difficulty purchasing menstrual products. Ann Arbor City Council unanimously passed the ordinance on Monday.
It takes place just weeks after Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer sign two laws repeals the state’s tax on menstrual products, saying it will save residents a 6% tax on $4,800 worth of expenses over a lifetime.
The Ann Arbor Ordinance applies to all public restrooms regardless of gender, but it does not include private residences.
Violators may be subject to a civil fine of not more than $100.
