Lifestyle

A New York Politician Is Fighting To #FreeTheTampons For Teenage Girls

by Emily Arata

As far as pop culture causes go, there's a long list of things we're freeing: the nipple, lady armpit hair, bushes, beards and man buns.

A new addition to the list, however, is more than just about aesthetics: Queens City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras wants to free the tampon.

Gothamist reports Ferreras is drumming up support for an initiative to provide often-expensive tampons to teen girls free of charge, stocking them in high school bathrooms while abandoning Albany's tax on feminine hygiene products.

In in a Facebook post, she wrote her beloved city already distributes complimentary condoms and should consider tampons an equally – if not more pressing – health issue.

According to Ferreras, free tampons are matters of "avoiding health risks, affordability and women's equality."

The councilwoman, who hosted an all-female roundtable discussion on the issue yesterday, remembered,

When I worked at the Beacon Program in Corona, young girls would skip class because they preferred that to asking staff for pads or risk staining their clothes... We should be making essential feminine hygiene products more affordable and accessible.

Ferreras' cause is bolstered by the support of Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, who published a New York Times opinion piece on the outrageous expense of tampons earlier this year.

Both women are supporters of Canada's successful #NoTaxOnTampons campaign and hope to see it become a reality in the United States.

Free the tampon, and free white pants along with it.

Citations: Free Tampons For Everyone Urges Queens City Councilwoman (Gothamist)