Florida Bill Targets Talks of Menstruation in Classrooms

House Bill 1069, now being referred to by its opponents as “Don’t Say Period,” passed the state’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives in March. The bill proposed banning any form of health education until 6th grade and would prohibit students from asking questions about menstruation, including about their own first periods, which frequently occur before the sixth grade.

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Watch Florida State Rep. @StanMcClain tell Rep. @Gantt4Florida that his bill prohibits young people from talking about their period….

WHAT?!?! pic.twitter.com/PoEgRm4sK0

— Florida Planned Parenthood Action (@PPactionFL) March 15, 2023

“So if little girls experience their menstrual cycle in 5th grade or 4th grade, will that prohibit conversations from them since they are in the grade lower than sixth grade?” asks state Rep. Ashley Gantt, a Democrat who taught in public schools and noted that girls as young as 10 can begin having periods.

“It would,” McClain responds.

According to the CDC, an estimated 10% of people assigned female at birth will experience their first period before age 10. Numerous studies have also found links between childhood trauma and ‘early’ menstruation, suggesting that those who do experience their first period before 6th grade are in desperate need of having these conversations in a safe and educational context.

A not-so-surprising bout of censorship from the party that prides itself on being protectors of free speech. If passed into law, the bill would go into effect July 1, affecting the school year beginning in fall 2023.

The bill would also allow parents to object to readings or materials their children are exposed to and require that schools teach that a person’s sex is defined by “the organization of the body of such person for a specific reproductive role, as indicated by the person’s sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, and internal and external genitalia present at birth.”

Furthermore, the bill contains a stipulation on pronouns, of all things. SB 1069 reads: “It shall be the policy of every public K-12 educational institution that is provided or authorized by the Constitution and laws of Florida that a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.”

These are details that have gone widely unreported by most news outlets covering SB 1069. It would seem that hidden (though not subtly) within a bill aimed at reducing sex education is yet another attack on trans youth at the state level. Coming from a state whose governor is projected to be a front-runner in the 2024 Presidential Election, SB 1069 and other recent legislation to come out of Florida is deeply concerning.

Taraneh Shirazian, MD, a board-certified ob-gyn at NYU Langone, told SELF that since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, parents and educators need to focus on fact-based sex education now more than ever.

“Menstruation is a normal biologic change, and girls and boys should understand it,” she says. “(If you censor conversations around it), you’re going to set up a big problem for young (people) around the issues of pregnancy and family planning.”