As we begin the 192nd Legislative Session - we know we cannot go back to business as usual. The pandemic has reminded us how essential toilet paper and toiletries are - and as we know, menstrual products too. With homelessness and food insecurity on the rise, so is period poverty. Homeless shelters should not need to leave the health and wellbeing of homeless menstruators to the whims of charity. Massachusetts has the opportunity to change that.

This year, as the State is preparing it's priorities for the state budget - we demand that the feminization of poverty is not ignored. Periods do not stop during pandemics.

No one should have to choose between food, a roof over their head, their education, and access to menstrual products and yet every day in Massachusetts, menstruators are forced to make exactly that choice.