EXPLANATORY NOTE

The Bill proclaims May 28 in each year as Menstrual Health Day.

Bill 55 2021

An Act to proclaim Menstrual Health Day

Preamble

In Ontario, a large number of people who menstruate struggle to afford menstrual products, especially in Northern and Indigenous communities where menstrual products are often sold at vastly inflated prices.

The inability to afford menstrual products can result in menstruators managing their menstrual health in unsafe and unsanitary ways, such as re-using non-reusable products, which can result in severe health issues, including toxic shock syndrome, sepsis and other dangerous infections. The affordability of menstrual products is a health and social equity issue that has the greatest impact on low income, homeless, Indigenous and young people who menstruate.

By proclaiming May 28 in each year as Menstrual Health Day, the Province of Ontario raises awareness of the challenges people who menstruate face and will give menstruators and non-menstruators in Ontario the opportunity to celebrate the natural process of menstruation and fight menstrual health inequity and stigma.

Menstrual Health Day contributes to the normalization of menstruation, as menstruating is a natural bodily function, and access to menstrual products is as necessary as access to soap, water and toilet paper.

Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

Menstrual Health Day

1 May 28 in each year is proclaimed as Menstrual Health Day.

Commencement

2 This Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.

Short title

3 The short title of this Act is the Menstrual Health Day Act, 2021.