Republicans on the campaign trail are criticizing Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, for signing legislation that provides free tampons and pads in school bathrooms.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for former President Donald Trump’s campaign, took to Fox News this week to criticize Walz’s policies as being too left-leaning. For instance, Leavitt linked a Minnesota law aimed at making menstrual products accessible to students to transgender health care for teens, the latter of which GOP lawmakers have opposed.
“As a woman, I think there is no greater threat to our health than leaders who support gender-transition surgeries for young minors, who support putting tampons in men’s bathrooms in public schools,” Leavitt said. “Those are radical policies that Tim Walz supports. He actually signed a bill to do that.”
Conservatives mocking the legislation argue that tampons are being placed in boys’ bathrooms, but nothing in the law explicitly states that. Instead, the measure uses gender-neutral language: “A school district or charter school must provide students access to menstrual products at no charge. The products must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12 according to a plan developed by the school district.”
According to the Alliance for Period Supplies, 28 states and Washington, D.C., have laws that help students get access to period products at no cost. Policies aimed at eliminating sales taxes on period products — Minnesota was the first state to do so in 1981 — have faced broader support in Republican-led states lately. South Carolina, Texas and Nebraska, which all passed abortion restrictions in recent years, were the latest states to make tampons, pads and the like tax-exempt.
Still, conservative firebrands, such as former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, started using the moniker “Tampon Tim” to refer to Walz and sharing an image of Walz’s face photoshopped on a Tampax box. But Democrats have somewhat reclaimed the insult, using the jabs to highlight menstrual equity policies instead.
On Wednesday, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wrote on X, “How nice of the Trump camp to help publicize Gov. Tim Walz’s compassionate and common-sense policy of providing free menstrual products to students in Minnesota public schools! Let’s do this everywhere.”
Minnesota Rep. Sandra Feist, one of the proposal’s initial supporters, chimed in, too. “This law exemplifies what we can accomplish when we listen to students to address their needs. Excited to see MN representation at the top of the ticket! #TamponTim,” Feist wrote on X.
The period products measure passed as part of a large education bill that increased K-12 spending by $2.3 billion and early childhood education by $300 million, Minnesota Reformer reported. Some school districts complained that too much of the funding went to mandates like stocking the menstrual products in bathrooms.
Nationally, efforts to make menstrual items accessible to students haven’t gone without controversy or roadblocks. In June, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill that would have launched a period product pilot program, even though the legislation had bipartisan support.
The Pennsylvania House recently passed a bill that would make pads and tampons free for public school students. One GOP lawmaker disagreed with the phrase “menstruating people” in the bill’s language and also said the legislation was “just another step by the governor and Democrats to have government provide everything for you, which leads to communism,” according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
Last year, an Oregon Republican introduced a bill that would have removed a requirement for boys’ bathrooms to stock tampons and pads. A 2021 law required schools to stock menstrual products in all student restrooms, Oregon Capital Chronicle reported. The bill died in committee.
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