A Proposal to Remove Questions About Menstruation from the Florida Public Health Law, as Proputed by the Florida House of Representatives
The vote comes after weeks of controversy surrounding questions on the medical form, which is typically filled out by a physician and submitted to schools. The board accepted the recommendation by the director of the association to remove the questions about an athlete’s period and last menstrual cycle.
“The intent of this proposal is to provide an updated … form which protects a student-athletes’s privacy while including pertinent medical information a health care provider at a member school would need access to,” the agenda item says.
“The rights of all girls in sports, including their right to privacy, must be respected as afforded in the State of Florida’s Constitution,” the legislators wrote.
The American Academy of pediatrics is of the opinion that menstruation data should be collected to help evaluate students. The information would be part of “standard elements important to consider in evaluating the patient’s eligibility to participate in sports,” the group said.
The forms suggest questions about menstruation, including when your most recent menstrual period occurred and how many periods have you had over the last year.
Information on menstruation may be necessary for a medical evaluation because an irregular menstrual cycle can be a sign of pregnancy, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says. Irregular cycles can also be a sign of lower estrogen levels that may contribute to bone loss, the organization says.
Protecting Transgender Athletes from Explicit Implications of The Florida High School Athletic Association and DeSantis’ Support of a Reproductive Health Law
These are particularly fraught questions at a time when many people are worried about how their reproductive health information might be used, both because of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and because of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ support for a law banning transgender athletes in girls’ sports.
Florida has a 15-week abortion ban that does not allow exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking. It also has laws restricting transgender athletes’ participation in high school and college athletics.
Brittany Frizzelle, an organizer focusing on reproductive justice at the Power U Center for Social Change in Miami, says she worries the information will be used to target transgender athletes.
The new form for the Florida High School Athletic Association is based on recommendations from medical groups. The FHSAA did not respond to requests for comment.
She says that the state has had a push to make sure that parents have full power over their children’s education. “I think it’s very important that parents also have autonomy over a child’s private health information, and it shouldn’t have to be required to be reported to the school.”
During the emergency meeting Thursday, the association’s attorney read public comments into the record for about an hour. The privacy concerns were one of the reasons why athletes were not required to report those details.