Scotland is looking out for their lasses.
The country is scheduled to vote on a bill on Tuesday which would ensure that all public buildings are stocked with tampons, sanitary pads and other menstruation products, free of charge.
“This law will ensure no one has to go without essential period products,” said Scottish lawmaker Monica Lennon, the bill’s primary sponsor, in a statement ahead of the vote.
The Labour party representative has championed the “world-leading” legislation to end “period poverty,” which comes now to a final vote before potentially becoming law. However, opposition held that the cost of such measures could exceed Lennon’s estimated £9.7 million (about $13 million) a year, according to the Independent.
“We are in the final miles of a long journey and I am heartened by the support for the Period Products Bill,” Lennon continued. “I am optimistic that we will complete that ground-breaking journey today.”
Lennon also credited the proposal’s “grass roots campaign and cross-party support” for helping the bill come to pass, including trade unions and women’s organizations. “I am grateful to them all,” she said.
“Scotland will not be the last country to make period poverty history, but it now has a chance to be the first,” she concluded.
The UK-member nation has already made menstruation products free throughout their schools and colleges, making them the first government to provide such goods for free as a matter of public policy.
Similar debates have taken place here in the US, among those calling for an end to the so-called “tampon tax.” A 2019 study by women’s hygiene brand Intimina found that approximately 75% of women believe an added tax on these products should be “eradicated,” while 67% call the added cost “sexist.”