Legislative - Bills

Increasing Access to Menstrual products

in New Jersey

Menstrual Products in Schools

NJ bill S692 and A3388 will provide access to free menstrual products to all menstruating individuals in NJ public schools.

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"Menstrual products are essential items we need to manage our health and manage our productivity," says Weiss-Wolf, who teamed up with Cosmopolitan to organize a petition to end sales tax on menstrual products, dubbed "the tampon tax." She learned about the issue from North Jersey neighbor, Elise Joy, who with her daughters Emma, 16, and Quinn, 12, started Girls Helping Girls Period, a non-profit that collects and distributes menstrual products to girls in need.

Providing free tampons and pads to students is "a small price to pay to keep girls in class," says Weiss-Wolf.

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Ingredient Listing

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NJ bill S2844 and A3611 require ingredients of menstrual products to be listed on the package.​

The average woman will use about 13,000 tampons in her lifetime, which means that these products—and the potentially harmful ingredients they contain—are sitting inside her body for around six years. “Companies deciding to not actively disclose ingredients in period care products is [like] saying you don’t have a right to know what’s in your tampon,” says Meika Hollender, cofounder and CEO of pioneering sexual wellness brand Sustain, who has spent her career fighting against this lack of transparency. “Period.” 

Representative Grace Meng (NY-6) introduced federal legislation, the Menstrual Equity for All Act (H.R. 1882) on March 26, 2019. This bill will improve access to period products in schools, incarceration facilities, homeless shelters, businesses and public federal buildings, as well allow period products to be covered by Medicaid and pre-tax flexible spending accounts. 

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