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Up next, Meng took on the federal prison system after she heard stories of women in prison having to ration out their menstrual supplies with their cellmates or having to use limited funds in their commissary accounts to buy tampons and pads.

Meng again wrote a letter to the Obama administration asking for menstrual products to be free in federal prisons, but it was close to the 2016 election and the end of President Obama's second term.

When President Donald Trump was elected in 2016, Meng said she was \"concerned\" about the future of her request, but the Trump administration expressed its support.

Free menstrual products for inmates at federal prisons was included in the bipartisan First Step Act that Trump signed into law last December.

\"Obviously people in both parties menstruate and know people who get their periods,\" said Meng of the bipartisan support she sees on the issue. \"Quite frankly, I find that a lot of people just haven’t thought about this issue and once they hear and learn about this issue are willing to support and help alleviate these situations.\"

Meng is now pressing governors to increase access to menstrual products in state and local prisons and questioning the Trump administration on their protocols for making sure female migrants at the border have access to menstrual products and showers.

She is also pushing to require that federal buildings, including the building where her office sits in the U.S. Capitol, have free supplies. It was only this year that House members became allowed to use their budget to purchase menstrual products for their offices.

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A post shared by Grace Meng (@grace4ny) on Jul 20, 2019 at 12:03pm PDT

Meng's \"Menstrual Equity for All\" bill also proposes changes like requiring corporations of 100 employees or more to provide free menstrual products to employees. Her \"Menstrual Products Right to Know\" bill would make tampons and pads just like most other products where manufacturers are required to list out their ingredients.

Both of those bills are still pending in the House, while legislation she worked on in the last Congress that would allow people to use health savings accounts to buy menstrual products passed the House but was never taken up in the Senate.

\"PHOTO:
Kevin Wolf/AP Images For Seventh Generation, FILE
PHOTO: Rep. Grace Meng speaks at a Women's Voices for the Earth's women's health rally supported by Seventh Generation on the grounds of the Capitol on May 23, 2017, in Washington.
>

\"[One] big hurdle that we are still trying to overcome is that this, in most cases, is not a life or death issue,\" said Meng. \"So especially in this unpredictable political climate [it] might not necessarily be the first priority issue that is on the minds of people but we definitely want to make it a priority.\"

'I don’t mind being called ‘the period lady’'

Poor menstrual hygiene does pose health risks for women, including reproductive issues and urinary tract infections.

The taboo around menstruation and the lack of access to menstrual products also hurts women economically because it costs them money for products and may keep them from jobs and school, advocates say. It also sets women back mentally and in a society where something that happens to them naturally is demeaned or even not discussed.

\"Most of us have been conditioned for all of our lives to not talk about menstruation,\" said Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, a lawyer and author of \"Periods Gone Public.\" \"And the things that keep us potentially from succeeding are often the things that happen to be what we don’t talk about in polite society.\"

\"All the ways our bodies work just the way they’re supposed to we don’t talk about because we haven’t truly valued women and girls,\" said Weiss-Wolf, who took up the issue of menstrual equity after teen girls in her community posted on Facebook seeking tampon donations for a food pantry.

Weiss-Wolf, also the co-founder of Period Equity, a law and policy organization fighting for menstrual equity, said the needle has moved in talking publicly about menstrual equity with celebrities including Sophia Bush, Gina Rodriguez and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, taking on the issue.

A documentary short on menstruation even won an Oscar this year.

Weiss-Wolf credits Meng with elevating the discussion in a \"really productive and responsible and meaningful way.\" The two have worked together on issues like eliminating the so-called \"tampon tax\" that still exists in more than 30 states in the U.S.

\"Congresswoman Meng really does stand out,\" she said. \"She’s’ been extraordinarily creative in thinking about what federal levers can be pulled.\"

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A post shared by Grace Meng (@grace4ny) on May 27, 2019 at 2:50pm PDT

Meng, who took office in 2013, said she doesn't mind being called the \"period lady\" by her colleagues or the public, saying, \"If it helps me be able to talk about the issue and educate people around me, then I don’t mind being called that.\"

She noted that growing up in a middle-class household, she never knew about the issues of period poverty or menstrual equity, but she did learn from a young age the stigma of having a period.

\"I don’t want to, as I [did when I] grew up, feel like I have to hide my product up my sleeve as I’m walking through the halls of school or the office toward the bathroom,\" Meng said. \"This is a natural part of being a human being and I don’t want people to be ashamed of it.\"

\"What’s been so inspiring is that anywhere I go, I will run into people, mostly women, who come up to me and these are women of all different ethnic backgrounds or come from different professions or are students or grandmothers,\" she said. \"They tell me how much they appreciate our work on this subject and a lot of them tell me they never thought about this issue before and how it impacts so many people in this country.\"

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