Fact check: Debunking Trump attack on Walz, Minnesota schools say they don’t provide tampons in boys’ bathrooms

Washington CNN —

A variety of Minnesota public school districts say they do not provide tampons in boys’ bathrooms — debunking a claim former President Donald Trump has been making about Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate.

Trump has asserted that Walz signed a law that forces Minnesota schools to provide free tampons in boys’ bathrooms, suggesting this supposed policy is evidence of Walz’s radicalism on gender issues.

Trump said at an August 9 campaign rally in Montana: “He ordered tampons to be put into boys’ bathrooms. Do we have any children here? Please close your ears. He ordered tampons in boys’ bathrooms.” Trump said at his Thursday press conference: “He signed a bill that boys’ bathrooms — all boys’ bathrooms in Minnesota — will have tampons.”

Facts First: Trump’s claims are false.

Walz didn’t order Minnesota schools to put tampons in boys’ bathrooms or sign a bill requiring tampons to be put in all boys’ bathrooms. That’s not what the bill signed by Walz in 2023 actually says — and it’s not how the 15 Minnesota school districts that spoke to CNN on Friday say they have implemented the law.

The law, intended to make sure students of all income levels and gender identities have ready access to menstrual products, says school districts and charter schools must make menstrual products like tampons and pads available at no cost “to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12 according to a plan developed by the school district.”

The law never specifies that the menstrual products must be put in “boys’ bathrooms,” and it allows school districts to decide what counts as a bathroom “regularly used by students.” Districts are permitted to