The French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne has announced that from 2024 women up to the age of 25 will be able to request reimbursement for reusable products for the menstrual cycle, i.e. absorbent underpants, silicone cups or washable sanitary pads. «Menstrual precariousness is a reality that affects too many women. It’s an everyday injustice,” Borne said. To be reimbursed, reusable hygiene products must be purchased in pharmacies: “It is unthinkable that women cannot have the protection they need,” Borne commented.
Menstrual insecurity is a reality that affects too many women.
It is a daily injustice.From 2024, reusable period protection will be reimbursed by social security for women aged 25 and under. pic.twitter.com/ouTqqbG7xz
— Élisabeth BORNE (@Elisabeth_Borne) March 6, 2023
In France, the so-called “period poverty” (the state of poverty that prevents some girls from going to school when they are menstruating because they cannot afford sanitary pads or other essential products) affects at least one in five women, according to some research cited in these hours from the French newspapers. In 2015 in France the so-called “tampon tax”, the tax on sanitary pads corresponding to VAT, had been lowered from 20 to 5.5 percent. In December 2020, French President Emmanuel Macron had made 5 million euros available to combat menstrual insecurity and in 2021 the government had provided for free menstrual products for all female students in university residences and university health services.
The question of the cost of sanitary pads has been discussed for many years in various countries, but there are few who have really done something to facilitate access to them. In Europe, the most advanced country is Scotland which, since August 2022, has decided to make sanitary pads or products for the menstrual cycle free of charge for all women.
