Approximately half of the nation needs these products on a monthly basis yet, many women are not able to afford the monthly cost of tampons and sanitary pads.  “A survey of low-income women in a large U.S. city finds that nearly two-thirds couldn’t afford menstrual hygiene products such as tampons or pads during the previous year,” says Reuters Health. In fact, one of the worst places in our nation in relating to poverty and feminine products is in St.Louis, our own state. 

“This is not a luxury,” said Anne Sebert Kuhlmann, an associate professor in the College for Public Health and Social Justice at St. Louis University. “It’s a need.” she says, “It affects a woman’s sense of self, her sense of dignity, and her ability to participate in life.” And she is exactly right. It is not a luxury, it is a necessity. So why is it still taxed as one? This is why there should be no tax on menstrual products. For the people who are struggling to make ends meet.

The LA Times seems to find it criminal, according to their article on taxing feminine products “as a matter of law, the argument extends far deeper. The tampon tax amounts to sex-based discrimination in violation of the equal protection clause, both under state and federal constitutions — making it more than merely unfair or inequitable, but unconstitutional and therefore illegal.”

Currently of the 45 states which impose statewide sales taxes, only eight specifically exempt feminine hygiene products from the sales tax base, as reported by The Tax Foundation. 

Let's make Missouri the next.