Massachusetts
MA advocate groups are calling legislators to ensure equal access to menstrual products
When women and girls don’t have access to menstrual products, they have to “just bleed and pray” that their pants will hold. Many in Massachusetts are forced to use toilet paper as a substitute for period products.
“I think it’s a matter of dignity and allowing menstruators to have the option to not have to free bleed or just giving them that bodily autonomy of how they want to deal with their periods,” said Olivia Toscano, the community organizing co-op of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization for Women.
Advocacy groups in Massachusetts such as MassNOW are calling on House lawmakers to pass the I AM bill, to ensure access to free menstrual products, without stigma, to all women and girls in all public schools, homeless shelters, prisons, and county jails.
“It’s about making sure that these products which are part of health care, which a part of our life, are available,” said Sen. Robyn Kennedy, D-Worcester, one of the sponsors of the bill.” “It’s a basic need that all menstruating individuals have. And it’s about making sure that those products for that care are available to all individuals to help break down the disparities.”
How much spent on feminine hygiene products?
The average woman spends about $20 on feminine hygiene products per cycle, adding up to about $18,000 over a lifetime, according to estimates from the National Organization of Women.
“It costs a lot to buy these products,” said Toscano. “There are menstruators out there who have to choose between food, rent, and menstrual products. That’s not a choice that should have to be made. I think we need to stop looking at it as a luxury; it’s a necessity.”
In October, the Senate passed the I AM bill, originally introduced in 2019, but it has not yet been passed in the House.
Kate Barker Swindell, Service & Operations Manager of PERIOD. said Massachusetts has done some work, but it could do better.
The Alliance for Period Supplies reports that Massachusetts is considering nine bills related to menstrual access, while New Jersey leads with a total of 24 bills.
Rep. Natalie Higgins, D-Leominster, said the bill is “critical” because menstrual products are essential, but they are too expensive for many, especially those in schools, prisons, and shelters.
“I think I AM Bill really focuses on some of the places where institutionally there can be access issues. So starting with our schools, starting with our shelters, and starting with our jails and prisons, makes a lot of sense,” she said.
Kyla Speizer, the community organizer of MassNOW, said the measure is the first in the country to call for providing free menstrual products for all three places: schools, shelters and jails.
“Those three places are some of the places that period poverty is shown the most, so they are some of the most vulnerable populations,” she said.
Lack of education and awareness
“I’ve been working with public schools, libraries, and just connecting with either the head of the department to kind of see what is the need, who actually needs these products and supplying these products,” said Magdelene Barjolo, the Worcester regional organizer of MassNOW. When people donate to the needy, they think first of food and clothing, she said.
“Menstrual products are not a part of the conversation,” she said
PERIOD’s Swindell said through years of advocacy the conversations and the attention around the problem is “growing exponentially,” but the stigma is still a real thing.
“I will say that’s across all ages, all races, all cultures, all religions. It’s like universal,” she said.
As of right now, Barjolo said she hasn’t seen any schools implement the concept of period poverty within their curriculum. “They kind of steer away from it,” she said.
Even when menstrual products are provided in some places, the stigma creates “an extra barrier” for people who need them, Speizer said
“They’re afraid to ask for a menstrual product or they’re afraid to take a day off of work when they are having really bad cramps. Maybe they have a mental disorder and they can’t make it to work that day, or whatever it is,” she said. “The stigma is something that prevents a lot of folks from maybe achieving their goals.”
Grassroots organizing looks to meet interim needs
In December, Worcester City Manager Eric Batista said he was going to implement the first phase of providing free menstrual products within public spaces in the city early this year.
Barjolo said before anything happens, grassroots organizers will provide communities and public spaces with products.
“A lot of people have said something of what their initiatives are going to do in terms of menstrual health,” she said. “We’re actually doing the work aside from waiting for elected officials to do what they can do.”
Ali Civilikas, vice president of Menstrual Equity Alliance, a Clark University-affiliated student-led club, said the Alliance installed nine dispensers for menstrual products in school two years ago, and hand-fill those dispensers once a month.
“We just keep pads and tampons on us usually, and whoever has time to go around and fill them,” she said.
In an email, Lesa McWalters, social justice chair of First Unitarian Church of Worcester, said parishioners have set up a subscription to purchase pads each month (at $300 per month) and distribute them to sheltered women.
“There are approximately 100 women and teens in that shelter, and since SNAP benefits do not cover feminine products we have begun a program called Sister-to-Sister Cycle Connection at our church,” she wrote in the email. “This is a very basic need, and legislation should change the qualification of pads from a “luxury item” to a basic human right to have access to free feminine products as part of the SNAP benefits.”
Consistent supply can be an issue
Many school districts, lockups and shelters already provide free menstrual products, but consistently providing them can be challenging, Speizer said.
“Many of them do offer it for free or have procedures in place to offer it, but maybe they don’t have the stable resources to be consistently offering it,” she said.
As a student-led club, Menstrual Equity Alliance has struggled working with school administration and getting it to help fund clean menstrual products on campus, Civilikas said.
“I don’t think they’ve ever provided free menstrual products like we are right now.” she said.
According to the Alliance for Period Supplies, in the past three years, nine states passed laws to require and fund schools to provide period products. That does not include Massachusetts.
Kennedy said the bill would make sure that they’re required to be provided and that there’s funding available.
“This bill, and the additional work we need to do is really making sure that those products are available holistically and automatically for all individuals to be able to access,” she said.
Only a few people to help
Not having enough labor can also create an issue for grassroots or student-led organizations that depend on members to keep doing the work.
“It can be like logistically very difficult to deal with so much product and so much distribution that needs to happen with only a few people who have the ability to do this kind of thing full time,” Toscano said. “With the state stepping in, it’ll fix those problems.”
This is the third session since the I AM bill was first introduced, and it’s approaching the last few months of the second year of this legislative session. Speizer said the biggest hurdle is not lack of support, but making the bill a top priority for legislators.
“This is a bipartisan bill that everyone supports for the most part, but the issue is just making sure that it’s the number one priority for enough legislators that it gets passed quickly,” she said.
Higgins said she doesn’t have a projected timeline for the bill, but hopes the measure gets through the House and onto the governor’s desk.
“We’re getting so close to the end of the session that we’re not maybe as confident as we were six months ago. But we’re really proud of how far it’s come this session and proud of the work that has been done by everyone involved,” Speizer said. “At this point, it’s just did our efforts make as much of a difference as we wanted to or will we be trying again next year? It’s really hard to know.”
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It’s not just great white sharks that are taking stripers from fishermen these days.
Porbeagle sharks — which stick around the Bay State all year — have been spotted several times in the last week chomping on striped bass that fishermen caught.
Those on a recent whale watch off the Cape even got a front-row seat to the action.
“We hope you lunge after your Fourth of July hot dog like this porbeagle going after a striped bass on our Provincetown whale watch yesterday!” Captain John Boats posted.
“It was incredible to see this top predator in its element in this National Geographic moment,” Captain John Boats added. “Our naturalist said it may have even been his favorite whale watch he has ever been on… Thanks to MA Sharks for your support and for showing us how to ID different shark species!”
MA Sharks is run by shark researcher John Chisholm, who on the day before July 4th received four different reports of porbeagle sharks taking striped bass.
“It was a busy day for porbeagle shark sightings yesterday,” Chisholm posted. “This is one of four reports we received yesterday of them taking striped bass from the N Shore to Nantucket. If you have an encounter like this, please let me know.”
Meanwhile over the holiday weekend, great white sharks were spotted all across the region.
In Cape Cod Bay, an 8-foot white shark was seen about two miles west of Wellfleet’s Jeremy Point.
On the South Shore, a dead seal with shark bites was found along Rexhame Beach in Marshfield.
And up on the North Shore, a small white shark was spotted about five miles off Marblehead.
Then much farther north, a beach was closed to swimming in Maine after a report of two sharks near Reid State Park.
“Swimming areas currently have been cleared,” the Maine town of Georgetown posted Sunday morning. “Be safe, stay alert, and enjoy Georgetown.”
A couple hours later, the swimming area at Reid was reopened.
“If you are in or on the water, please stay alert,” the town added.
White sharks come to the region every summer and fall to hunt for seals close to shore.
Before heading into the water, Chisholm urges people to review shark safety guidelines, including: be aware that sharks hunt for seals in shallow water; stay close to shore where rescuers can reach you; don’t isolate yourself; avoid areas where seals are present; avoid areas where schools of fish are visible; avoid murky or low-visibility water; limit splashing; and follow all signage and flag warnings at beaches and instructions of the lifeguards.
Chisholm also encourages beachgoers to use the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app to view shark activity, get shark alerts and report sightings.
Massachusetts
Wrong-way driving is becoming more common and deadly in Mass. The state is racing to prevent it. – The Boston Globe
In each of the last two years, the state issued more than 500 citations to drivers on state highways, the Massachusetts Turnpike, and the Boston Harbor tunnels, a Globe analysis of state data found. And 2026 is on track to outpace those figures, with the state already logging nearly 270 citations by late June.
Wrong-way crashes tend to be at least 12 times deadlier than other car accidents, studies show, and their causes are frustratingly difficult to pin down to a single source.
Now state officials are rushing to implement a new $75 million program that includes a constellation of cameras, new road signs, and infrastructure improvements designed to prevent wrong-way collisions.
Massachusetts supercharged the effort after the death of state Trooper Kevin Trainor spurred calls for stronger action, including from Governor Maura Healey, said Jonathan Gulliver, a state undersecretary of transportation.
Gulliver said the Massachusetts Department of Transportation now expects to mount 430 detection cameras by the end of 2027. The system notifies wrong-way drivers with an audible alarm, flashing signs, and a spotlight, then pings law enforcement if a driver does not turn around.
The installation underway builds off a smaller pilot program at 16 Massachusetts locations that flagged roughly 300 wrong-way incidents since 2022.
“I’m not sure that [wrong-way crashes] happened more or less years ago, but I am certain we didn’t hear about them as much when they did,” Gulliver said.
In all, wrong-way crashes are among the “most preventable” roadway accidents but difficult to eliminate because they cannot be tracked cleanly to one source, said AAA spokesperson Mark Schieldrop.
Persistent speeding, distracting and impaired driving, and an aging population of drivers confused behind the wheel are the leading contributors to wrong-way citations, experts said. Nationally, six in 10 wrong-way crashes involve an alcohol-impaired driver.
And the dark of night can’t take all the blame, either: nearly 45 percent of crashes in Massachusetts occurred during daylight hours.
And though a wrong-way incident can be as simple as sliding into the unintended lane on a ramp, a single mistake against the flow of traffic is often dangerous.
In Massachusetts, at least 135 people have died in 5,506 wrong-way crashes on Massachusetts roads since 2018, according to AAA. That includes 22 deaths in 2025, the most in a single year during that time frame.
State officials here are focusing first on divided highways, where high-speed crashes can be especially deadly. MassDOT has identified 100 high-risk spots for wrong-way detection cameras, which include crash-prone intersections already equipped with cameras in Danvers, Auburn, Braintree, Fall River, and Wheatley.
Roughly 70 other roads at risk for wrong-way crashes may require larger reconstruction projects down the line, Gulliver said.
State leaders also intend to install clearer “wrong way” and “do not enter” signage, improved pavement markings, directional arrows, and better lighting at highway ramps and interchanges.
Legislation tucked into the state’s $63 billion budget plan, sent to the governor’s desk Wednesday, also proposes a study to improve roadway safety for drivers over 70, an expansion of law enforcement training, and completion of an analysis of documented incidents of wrong-way driving.
At a press conference following a vote on the budget amendment, Nicole Dailey lauded the efforts to address the issue after her son Christopher Dailey, an 18‑year‑old Gloucester High School graduate and hockey team captain, died in a wrong-way crash on Route 128 last summer.
“I don’t want any other community to have to go through this,” said Dailey. “It’s . . . senseless.”
Across the country, fatal wrong-way crashes doubled in the decade after 2014. Recent crashes in Massachusetts have involved drivers under the influence or allegedly fleeing the State Police, but many incidents can be traced back to disorientation and poor signage. Winding roads and complicated overpasses — specific to the older infrastructure and circuitous traffic patterns in Massachusetts — can add to the problem, Gulliver said.
In response, state officials sourced detection technology from TAPCO, a Wisconsin-based transportation product company. The cameras, mounted on street light signals, use artificial intelligence and heat detection to identify wrong-way drivers and differentiate them from pedestrians, birds, and other hazards, Gulliver said.
The software-based system costs $20,000 per camera to install, less than half the $70,000 price tag associated with cameras in the previous state pilot program. Those cameras use “loop detection” to manually identify wrong-way drivers, using wiring in the roads that recognizes passing vehicles above.
An average of two wrong-way cameras are installed each week. Some have proved to be fruitful immediately.
At the intersection of Routes 128 and 35 in Danvers, where officials connected a camera on June 16, “the same day we activated it, we caught a wrong-way driver,” Gulliver said.
In the next few years, state officials also hope to have a system that automatically pings roadside message boards and GPS systems to notify drivers about wrong-way vehicles.
Still, Massachusetts is moving more slowly than other states.
Rhode Island — a “leader” in wrong-way crash detection, Gulliver said — did not have a single wrong-way driving death in the decade after it began its analysis of collision hotspots at 200 ramps statewide in 2015. Ultimately, additional wrong-way signs, lower to the ground and with flashing lights, worked in tandem with other low-cost measures to warn over 1,000 vehicles that they need to turn around, state data show.
Eva Zymaris, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Department of Transportation, said the installation of cameras bore similar results in that state, with 237 out of 400 planned locations operational to date.
Illuminated wrong-way signs flash when a driver is going the wrong way and pings two highway operations centers. That avoids the need for 911 calls that can otherwise pour in after an accident has already happened, Zymaris said.
In 2022, before the $81 million system was installed, 23 people died from wrong-way crashes in Connecticut. Preliminary data show there were four deaths in 2025.
“Seconds count here,” Zymaris said. “To be able to expedite that response time is huge to prevent crashes and fatalities.”
Now Vermont and Maine are also ramping up prevention efforts, after the number of wrong-way deaths rose in both states. And nationwide, states such as Ohio and Florida implemented detection technology roughly a decade ago. Nevada adopted harsher penalties for wrong-way driving in 2025.
Wrong-way crashes, typically the fault of an individual driver, can rarely be solved otherwise, said Peter Savolainen, a Michigan State University professor who studies road user behavior.
“A lot of times drivers don’t know until it’s too late that they’re going the wrong way,” he said. “So all states can do — and are doing — is try to make it more difficult for people to make that incorrect decision.”
Samantha J. Gross of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Diti Kohli can be reached at diti.kohli@globe.com. Follow her @ditikohli_. Scooty Nickerson can be reached at scooty.nickerson@globe.com.
A motorcyclist was seriously hurt in a crash with another vehicle on July Fourth in Groton, Massachusetts.
The Groton Fire Department says the collision occurred around 8:34 a.m. Saturday in the area of Old Ayer Road and Boston Road (Route 119).
The motorcyclist, a man in his 40s, suffered a significant lower-body injury. He was taken by ambulance to a landing zone at the fire station on Farmers Row, then flown by a medical helicopter to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. His condition wasn’t immediately available.
The driver of the passenger vehicle reported no injuries, officials added.
It’s unclear what caused the crash. An investigation by the Groton Police Department is ongoing.
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