--- title: Scotland’s Initiative to Provide Free Period Products to All description: Around 500 million people worldwide are unable to access tampons, pads, and other menstruation products due to financial constraints. canonical: https://time.com/6209569/scotland-period-poverty-video/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-08-30T16:05:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-11T22:14:16.000Z article:section: Health og:title: Scotland’s New Initiative to Provide Free Period Products to All og:description: Around 500 million people worldwide are unable to access tampons, pads, and other menstruation products due to financial constraints og:url: https://time.com/6209569/scotland-period-poverty-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf70feb502868ffda/698a350016d8840a9dc3af84/scotland-period-poverty.jpeg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Rally Outside Parliament To Support Free Provision Of Period Products In Scotland og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scotland’s New Initiative to Provide Free Period Products to All twitter:description: Around 500 million people worldwide are unable to access tampons, pads, and other menstruation products due to financial constraints twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf70feb502868ffda/698a350016d8840a9dc3af84/scotland-period-poverty.jpeg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scotland’s New Initiative to Provide Free Period Products to All > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=317ae475-5616-432b-a0bd-4b17467fcd57&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Scotland’s New Initiative to Provide Free Period Products to All [Watch (HLS stream): Scotland’s New Initiative to Provide Free Period Products to All](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3jHaDHlk.m3u8) (3:24)  _Published 2022-08-29. Around 500 million people worldwide are unable to access tampons, pads, and other menstruation products due to financial constraints. That forces them to use makeshift items, from socks to toilet paper, to try to manage their periods. Activists say this has profound impact on not only their physical health, but their mental health, too. In August, Scotland became the first country in the world to guarantee the right to period products. Lawmakers told TIME why this new initiative is so important._ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Updated: Dec 11, 2023 10:14 PM UTCPublished: Aug 30, 2022 4:05 PM UTC Around 500 million people worldwide are unable to access tampons, pads, and other menstruation products due to financial constraints. That forces them to use makeshift items, from socks to toilet paper, to try to manage their periods. Activists say this has profound impact on not only their physical health, but their mental health, too. In August, Scotland became the first country in the world to guarantee the right to period products. Lawmakers told TIME why this new initiative is so important. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Updated: Dec 11, 2023 10:14 PM UTCPublished: Aug 30, 2022 4:05 PM UTC ## Transcript [00:14] As we say, in England, if you wake me to talk about Paris, [00:17] like we talked about the weather and the way to do that is just [00:20] talked about it and normalize. [00:22] Not being able to express in something like that, [00:39] she's basically lack of hearing protection for anybody who menstruate, [00:43] we should not ask as menstruating. [00:46] People have to worry about where I'm at. [00:48] Scott comes from all making impossible. [00:53] Roy says, they're choosing between buying food. [00:57] Products and he's heading to the carnival with that pay. [01:03] Using a new toilet paper, stocks t-shirt heat, [01:05] I will be inside so that Kayla cases and Otterbox Commuter [01:14] How to stop people from being able to talk to the people who [01:30] menstruate, you know, everybody else needs to know what happens [01:33] to us parents as well. [01:39] You know, the small research around erectile dysfunction [01:43] than that. Any of the women's issues around people and their [01:52] private lives are type of relationships that can affect their [01:55] sex slaves, that can affect them in education in school. [01:58] So we have to bring evidence that conversation in affect me directly. [02:03] It doesn't mean I shouldn't be concerned. [02:06] Well, I don't experience menstrual, I understand [02:14] What I can do to help. [02:17] If you do not been straight, there's absolutely no reason. [02:19] You can be ignorant to the fact that people do men strike [02:22] could be suffering by not being able to become when it becomes [02:29] an issue. If you don't feel shame, [02:31] when you're asking for prayer books regarding Women's Health [02:36] and women's rights have been overlooked for far too long, [02:39] shouldn't feel afraid to be disastrous. [02:42] Can't stand women. [02:44] I was once told by a miracle to compose text to be careful, [02:48] not to burn, one about women that she has to be taken, [02:51] seriously, but the legislation is one part of it. [02:55] Access to Pee, Dee Potts, and another part of an important [02:59] aspect. But really, it's supposed to be can have these inclusive [03:04] respectful conversation, that really [03:08] Contribute, towards improving outcomes to the nation that he, [03:12] she doesn't have to suffer in silence. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6209569/scotland-period-poverty-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6209569/scotland-period-poverty-video/"},"headline":"Scotland’s New Initiative to Provide Free Period Products to All","datePublished":"2022-08-30T16:05:46.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-11T22:14:16.000Z","description":"Around 500 million people worldwide are unable to access tampons, pads, and other menstruation products due to financial constraints.","url":"https://time.com/6209569/scotland-period-poverty-video/","keywords":["Health Care","video"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf70feb502868ffda/698a350016d8840a9dc3af84/scotland-period-poverty.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf70feb502868ffda/698a350016d8840a9dc3af84/scotland-period-poverty.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Rally Outside Parliament To Support Free Provision Of Period Products In Scotland","caption":"Rally Outside Parliament To Support Free Provision Of Period Products In Scotland","creditText":"Getty Images—2020 Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/health-care/","name":"Health Care"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6209569/scotland-period-poverty-video/","name":"Scotland’s New Initiative to Provide Free Period Products to All"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Scotland’s New Initiative to Provide Free Period Products to All","description":"Around 500 million people worldwide are unable to access tampons, pads, and other menstruation products due to financial constraints. 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