Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. MENG. Madam Speaker, I rise today to announce that on May 28th, Menstrual Hygiene Day, I introduced my Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2021. No one should be inhibited from participating fully in daily life due to lack of access to menstrual products. Safe, affordable access to period products is a basic need for over half the population, moreover, it is a human right.

Madam Speaker, period poverty permeates and cuts across a swath of issues--from educational equity to criminal justice reform; from economic and housing justice to immigration. The tragic reality for too many individuals in our nation, is that the cost of menstrual products is a barrier to managing monthly menstruation in a safe and dignified manner.

In the United States, 25 million women live at or below the poverty line. A 2019 study found that among low-income women in a major U.S. city, nearly half had to choose between buying food and spending money on menstrual products. One in five teens have struggled to afford period products, or were not able to purchase them at all. As a result, over 80 percent of teens say they missed school or know someone else who has. A recent study revealed that 1 in 10 college students was unable to afford menstrual products, and those who experienced period poverty on a monthly basis, were more likely to experience moderate to severe depression.

Madam Speaker, menstruators from all walks of life, across our country are having to choose between their period or their dignity. In fact, a lawsuit filed against DHS's monstrous treatment of migrant children in its custody found that girls with periods were left to bleed through their clothes and denied showers for days on end. This is unconscionable. We must break the silence, raise awareness, and fight for menstrual equity for all--each and every day.

My Menstrual Equity for All Act, is the first of its kind to comprehensively address the challenges of those experiencing period poverty. My bill would provide students from elementary school through postsecondary education free menstrual products, ensure that incarcerated individuals and detainees in federal, state, and local facilities have access to free menstrual products, allow homeless assistance provides to provide these products with federal grant funds, require Medicaid to cover the cost of menstrual products, direct large employers to provide free menstrual products in the workplace, and ensure that all public federal buildings provide free menstrual products in restrooms.

Madam Speaker, we cannot address educational equity, economic justice, or infrastructure reform without addressing the barriers that prevent our social infrastructure from caring for the basic health care rights of our population. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation and join me in upholding this human right. We must work to end period poverty once and for all.

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