Free menstrual products are now available in nearly 700 restrooms around the University of Michigan campus, including at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

Back in November, the Ann Arbor City Council approved an ordinance requiring menstrual products in all public restrooms. U-M, however, operates outside of Ann Arbor’s jurisdiction, but later decided they would follow the ordinance despite not being required to. This came after a pilot program in the summer, in order to assess the demands for the products, as well as the logistics and associated costs. 

Now, menstrual products are being provided “across all 670 main floor restrooms in all academic and student-facing buildings,” which includes UMMA. This includes not only women’s restrooms, but restrooms designated as men’s and gender-neutral as well. This is because some transgender men also menstruate, as do some non-binary people. Furthermore, it’s a convenient way for non-menstruating people to grab a pad to help out a friend or partner who’s in a pinch, rather than spending money at a drugstore when they have a full box of supplies at home. 

Ann Arbor is the first city in the United States to pass an ordinance addressing “period poverty” like this (although the country of Scotland passed a similar law in 2020). The ordinance garnered attention from CNN and NPR, among others, and came shortly after Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed two laws repealing Michigan’s sales tax on period products.