# Understanding the Menstrual Equity For All Act of 2021

This bill tackles what advocates call "period poverty"—the struggle many people face affording menstrual products each month. The legislation takes a broad approach by requiring free menstrual products to be available in schools, colleges, workplaces, prisons, homeless shelters, and federal buildings.

For students, the bill makes menstrual products free in K-12 schools and creates a grant program for colleges to provide them on campus. Schools would stock products in bathrooms, wellness centers, and dorms. The bill prioritizes funding for community colleges and schools serving low-income students, recognizing that period poverty disproportionately affects Black, Latina, and first-generation students. In higher education, at least 50 percent of grant money must go to community colleges, which often serve students facing financial hardship.

The bill extends beyond schools to address period poverty in multiple settings. Medicaid would cover menstrual products as a medical benefit. States would be required to provide free products to incarcerated people and immigration detainees, with financial penalties for non-compliance. Employers with 100 or more employees would need to provide free menstrual products to workers. The bill also requires menstrual products to be stocked in federal building restrooms and available through homeless assistance programs.

The underlying premise is straightforward: when people can't afford menstrual products, they miss school, work, and other activities, or resort to unsafe substitutes that risk infections. By removing cost barriers, the bill aims to help people—particularly those with limited income—participate fully in education, employment, and daily life without the added burden of affording basic hygiene products.

Menstrual Equity For All Act of 2021

Meng, Grace

Menstrual Equity For All Act of 2021 This bill expands access to free sanitary napkins and tampons (i.e., menstrual products) in certain locations and for particular groups. It also requires Medicaid to cover menstrual products, as well as liners, cups, and similar items used by individuals with respect to menstruation. Specifically, the bill imposes requirements to make free menstrual products available in federal and state correctional facilities (including facilities that house aliens detained by the Department of Homeland Security) and restrooms in federal buildings that are open to the public. It also establishes a demonstration grant program to support the provision of free menstrual products on campuses of institutions of higher education and permits elementary and secondary schools to use certain grants to provide menstrual products to students. Furthermore, the bill requires employers with at least 100 employees to provide free menstrual products for employees. It also permits the use of certain grants for emergency food and shelter to provide menstrual products to homeless individuals.