Menstruation, Myopia, and Marginalization: Advancing Menstrual Policies to “Keep Girls in School” at the Risk of Exacerbating Inequalities

As countries across the world adopt policies addressing menstruation, it is imperative to identify who benefits from such policies and to understand the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion. We examine such policies through the lens of human rights, as a framework that demands addressing marginalization, ensuring substantive equality, and guaranteeing inclusive participation to ensure that the menstrual needs of everyone, everywhere are met. Our review is focused on four countries (India, Kenya, Senegal, and the United States) and is based on data from 34 policy documents and interviews with 85 participants. We show that girls, particularly school-going girls, are the main target group of policies. Due to this myopic view of menstrual needs, policies risk leaving the needs of adult menstruators, including those experiencing (peri)menopause, unaddressed. Moreover, the intersection between menstrual status and markers of identity such as disability and gender identity produces further policy gaps. These gaps can be attributed to the exclusion of marginalized menstruators from decision-making processes by creating barriers and failing to ensure meaningful inclusive participation. To address inequalities, policy makers need to make a concerted effort to understand and accommodate the needs of menstruators in all their diversity

The Rise of Pregnancy Criminalization: A Pregnancy Justice Report

In 2013, Pregnancy Justice published the first comprehensive national documentation effort capturing pregnancy-related arrests and deprivations of liberty. The 2013 study identified 413 reported cases from 1973 through 2005, arising out of 44 states and the District of Columbia, and involving a range of pregnancy outcomes including abortions, live births, miscarriages, and stillbirths. Overwhelmingly, the cases occurred despite a lack of legal authority, in defiance of numerous and significant appellate court decisions dismissing or overturning such actions, and contrary to the extraordinary consensus across the medical community that prosecution undermines rather than improves maternal, fetal, and child health. In 86% of these cases, pregnant people faced prosecution through the use of existing criminal statutes intended for other purposes.This report begins where the first study left off, documenting cases of pregnancy criminalization from January 2006 until the Dobbs ruling in June 2022. What we found was deeply concerning. Over these 16.5 years, we identified 1,396 cases. In other words, of the 1,800 pregnancy criminalization cases that took place over the last half century, over three-quarters occurred after 2005. Through an alarming combination of carceral approaches to substance use and the spread of fetal personhood laws, state actors have increasingly penalized pregnant people. Understanding this disturbing phenomenon—including who is most affected, how, and under what pretense—will be essential to fighting for pregnant people's liberties as we enter the post-Dobbs era

‘We like things tangible:’ A critical analysis of menstrual hygiene and health policy-making in India, Kenya, Senegal and the United States

Over the last decade, many countries have adopted policies addressing menstrual needs. Our research explores the opportunities and challenges that have shaped these initiatives and critically examines their scope and substantive focus. Our study analyses developments in four countries: India, Kenya, Senegal, and the United States. It is based on an analysis of 34 policy documents and interviews with 85 participants active in policy-making or advocacy. Across countries, we found a predominant policy focus on tangible and material outcomes, such as menstrual products and facilities, that is informed by a narrow perception of menstrual needs as the management of bleeding. A number of drivers influenced policy-makers to keep this focus, especially the key narrative around menstrual pads as a perceived solution to school absenteeism combined with sensationalisation in the media and the quest for quantifiable results. Menstrual stigma is so ingrained that it continues to constrain policy-makers and advocates themselves by perceiving and presenting menstruation as a problem to be fixed, managed, and hidden. When considering new policy directions, we need to create capacity for a holistic menstrual policy landscape that overcomes systemic barriers to addressing the needs of menstruators that are largely rooted in menstrual stigma

Menstruation, myopia, and marginalization: Advancing menstrual policies to “keep girls in school” at the risk of exacerbating inequalities

As countries across the world adopt policies addressing menstruation, it is imperative to identify who benefits from such policies and to understand the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion. We examine such policies through the lens of human rights, as a framework that demands addressing marginalization, ensuring substantive equality, and guaranteeing inclusive participation to ensure that the menstrual needs of everyone, everywhere are met. Our review is focused on four countries (India, Kenya, Senegal, and the United States) and is based on data from 34 policy documents and interviews with 85 participants. We show that girls, particularly school-going girls, are the main target group of policies. Due to this myopic view of menstrual needs, policies risk leaving the needs of adult menstruators, including those experiencing (peri)menopause, unaddressed. Moreover, the intersection between menstrual status and markers of identity such as disability and gender identity produces further policy gaps. These gaps can be attributed to the exclusion of marginalized menstruators from decision-making processes by creating barriers and failing to ensure meaningful inclusive participation. To address inequalities, policy makers need to make a concerted effort to understand and accommodate the needs of menstruators in all their diversity