Menstrual Justice
Menstrual Justice Margaret E. Johnson* Menstrual injustice is the oppression of menstruators, women, girls, transgender men and boys, and nonbinary persons, simply because they * Copyright © 2019 Margaret E. Johnson. Professor of Law, Co-Director, Center on Applied Feminism, Director, Bronfein Family Law Clinic, University of Baltimore School of Law. My clinic students and I have worked with the Reproductive Justice Coalition on legislative advocacy for reproductive health care policies and free access to menstrual products for incarcerated persons since fall 2016. In 2018, two bills became law in Maryland requiring reproductive health care policies in the correctional facilities as well as free access to products. Maryland HB 787/SB629 (reproductive health care policies) and HB 797/SB 598 (menstrual products). I want to thank the Coalition members and my students who worked so hard on these important laws and are currently working on their implementation and continued reforms. I also want to thank the following persons who reviewed and provided important feedback on drafts and presentations of this Article: Professors Michele Gilman, Shanta Trivedi, Virginia Rowthorn, Nadia Sam-Agudu, MD, Audrey McFarlane, Lauren Bartlett, Carolyn Grose, Claire Donohue, Phyllis Goldfarb, Tanya Cooper, Sherley Cruz, Naomi Mann, Dr. Nadia Sam-Agudu, Marcia Zug, Courtney Cross, and Sabrina Balgamwalla. I want to thank Amy Fettig for alerting me to the breadth of this issue. I also want to thank Bridget Crawford, Marcy Karin, Laura Strausfeld, and Emily Gold Waldman for collaborating and thinking about issues relating to periods and menstruation. And I am indebted to Max Johnson-Fraidin for his insight into the various critical legal theories discussed in this Article and Maya Johnson-Fraidin for her work on menstrual justice legislative advocacy.
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