On May 29, 2025, Congresswoman Grace Meng reintroduced the Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2025 (H.R. 3644)—a comprehensive piece of legislation designed to ensure that menstrual products are accessible, affordable and tax-free for all who need them.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2025: A Groundbreaking Bill with Broad Reach
The Menstrual Equity for All Act is one of the most sweeping menstrual health bills ever introduced in Congress. It addresses access at nearly every level of public life, including:
- K-12 Schools: Give states the option to use federal grant funds to provide students in elementary and secondary schools with free menstrual products.
- Higher Education Institutions: Creates a $5 million grant program to fund free menstrual products on campuses, with priority for community colleges and minority-serving institutions.
- Incarcerated & Detained Individuals: Mandates that all people in federal, state, and local facilities (including immigration detention centers), have access to free menstrual products.
- Unhoused Populations: Allows federal homeless assistance funds that cover shelter necessities to be used to purchase period products.
- Large Employers: Requires employers with 100+ employees to provide free menstrual products for their employees in the workplace.
- Federal Buildings: Requires all public federal buildings to provide free menstrual products in their bathrooms.
- Medicaid: Adds menstrual products as a covered item under Medicaid.
- TANF & Social Services Block Grants: Directs funding to help low-income individuals access period products through established aid programs and creates a new Pilot Program within the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
- Period Product Tax Ban: Eliminates the federal sales tax on period products.
Why This Matters
Menstrual equity is about more than pads and tampons—it’s about dignity, health and opportunity. When people don’t have access to the products they need, they’re more likely to miss school, skip work or face avoidable health risks like infections. The data is staggering:
- 1 in 4 students and 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. struggle to afford period products.
- Period poverty disproportionately affects Black, Latina, immigrant and Indigenous communities.
- Individuals experiencing period poverty are more likely to suffer from depression and health complications due to using unsanitary substitutes.
“Period products are essential for millions of people who menstruate,” said Congresswoman Meng. “Access to these products is not only a health care right, but also a human right. It is unacceptable that they are still out of reach for more than half the population. This legislation takes critical steps toward ending period poverty by expanding access to menstrual products for individuals across a range of populations, such as in schools and universities, workplaces, and correctional and detention facilities, and through existing federal programs like the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Social Services Block Grants. Without it, women, girls, and menstruators will continue to miss out on educational and career opportunities simply because they cannot afford period products. We must keep fighting for them.”
So… What Now?
Right now, the bill is headed to several congressional committees for review. It will take advocacy, public pressure and bipartisan support to move this legislation forward, but it’s a critical step toward ending period poverty in the U.S.
How You Can Make a Difference
Want to make menstrual equity a reality? Here’s what you can do:
- Contact your representative and urge them to support H.R. 3644.
- Share this blog to spread awareness about the bill.
- Support organizations and schools implementing free period product programs in your community.
- Stay informed and engaged—period policy is evolving, and your voice matters.
At Aunt Flow, we’re on a mission to make free period care the standard in every restroom—Whether it’s a school, workplace, airport, or anywhere in between. Because let’s be real: no one should have to panic and dig through their bag, whisper-ask a coworker or improvise with toilet paper in 2025.
We’re all about turning bathrooms into stocked, safe, shame-free spaces where period care is treated like the essential it is. That’s why we proudly support game-changing legislation like the Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2025, which brings us one giant step closer to that goal.
