Student inspires Lilly’s Bill in Pa. House
SOUTH COVENTRY >> Owen J. Roberts High School senior Lilly Minor is only 16 but she’s already done something most people have never even tried. She’s inspired a bill in the Pennsylvania Legislature.
House Bill 1708, also dubbed Lilly’s Bill, seeks to make it mandatory for schools statewide serving female students in grades six through 12 to provide menstrual hygiene products in bathrooms at no cost.
It was introduced in July by state Rep. Danielle Friel Otten, D-155th Dist., who agreed to cosponsor it after meeting with Minor.
“This is an issue that’s really important to young women,” Otten explained, adding that not having access to feminine hygiene products “is a big barrier to being at school and really being present.”
There is currently a national conversation going on about menstrual equity, much of it focused on providing equal access to sanitary products in schools. But Otten credits Minor for bringing the matter to her attention.
“Young women like Lilly have been going to legislators across the state to talk about this issue,” Otten said.
Minor’s interest in menstrual equity was an evolution of sorts that began two years ago, when she was still a sophomore. One day, she noticed something disquieting about the sanitary product machines in the school bathrooms — they were all empty.
This bothered her. So she mentioned it to her father, school board member Karel Minor.
He agreed that the machines should be full, and further suggested to his daughter that the sanitary products should be available at no cost.
In fact, Minor discovered that menstrual products could be gotten for free from the school nurse.
“But even I didn’t realize that,” she observed.
And, she continued to be concerned that easier access in school bathrooms was not available.
She was inspired when she read about menstrual equity legislation for incarcerated women that had been introduced in Congress last year. And she discovered that New York State had enacted a law in 2018 that requires schools serving students in grades six through 12 to provide free feminine hygiene products in bathrooms.
“I thought, ‘That’s a really great idea,” Lilly Minor recalled.
So, she decided to do something about it. And that something was to approach Otten about creating a law, similar to New York’s, for Pennsylvania. Otten readily agreed to sponsor such a bill.
In a memorandum about the bill dated July 3, Otten states that Minor came to her office “to discuss the fact that, at her school, students have limited or no access to menstrual hygiene products in school bathrooms.”
The memorandum notes that products are often available from school nurses offices, but “in many districts nurses travel between multiple schools and may not be present during the entire school day; consequently, a student may not have access to menstrual hygiene products when they are needed.”
A November 2017 study quoted in the memorandum found that nearly 1 in 5 young women nationwide have “missed school or left early due to a lack of menstrual hygiene products.”
When lack of access is due to economic factors, it is known as “period poverty.”
Both Otten and Minor say that period poverty is a serious issue in Pennsylvania.
“When girls don’t have access to feminine hygiene products they stay home, and they get more stressed out about staying clean,” Lilly Minor said. “We should be doing the best we can to support girls in education.”
Minor decided to bring the matter to Otten’s attention when her father invited her to attend a meeting he had scheduled with the state representative on another matter. Otten was not only receptive to the idea, she readily encouraged Minor.
In June, Minor visited Harrisburg and had the opportunity to speak with two lawyers about drafting the bill. Using language from laws in other states, and incorporating her own ideas, Minor helped shaped the bill.
Despite being only 16, she was not intimidated. In fact, she was elated by the experience.
“It was awesome!” she said, recalling the time she spent meeting with lawyers and walking around the Capitol building snapping photos on her phone of the beautiful architecture.
In fact, it was, in part, Lilly’s enthusiasm and willingness to lead that inspired Otten to sponsor the bill.
“It’s a value of mine to take on young women who want to lead,” Otten said.
So far, both Minor and Otten say they have received a positive response to the bill.
“In my school, pretty much every female student I’ve talked to says ‘This is amazing.’ Because it’s such a problem for all women,” Lilly Minor said.
To date, no financial impact analysis has been done to determine how much the bill would cost the state if it were to become law. However, both Minor and Otten were quick to point out that purchasing feminine hygiene products should be perceived as no different from buying toilet paper or soap for school bathrooms.
“To look at it any other way is to marginalize young women,” Otten said. “This is a conversation about priorities we as legislators need to have. Our girls’ health and wellbeing needs to be at the top of that (priority) list.” Lilly Minor agreed. “There is a cost, but the cost isn’t anywhere near that of having girls miss school,” said Minor. “The education of girls matters, and this is something we should be doing to increase equity.”
To gain support for the bill, Otten is hosting a lobby day for it on Oct. 22. That date was selected because of its proximity to National Period Day on Oct. 19 — a first time awareness day with events across the country devoted to the issue of period poverty.
Otten is pleased that Minor will be speaking at a rally on National Period Day and participating in the lobby day.
“It’s an honor to be able to work with a woman like Lilly,” she said. “I hope this is the beginning for her in terms of taking an active leadership role in her community.”
For her part, Lilly Minor said she doesn’t foster any political aspirations, and instead hopes to pursue a career as a screenwriter. Nevertheless, she intends to remain active in her community.
“I do intend to spend the rest of my life doing political work and activism,” she said.