Ending Missouri's tampon tax won't make period products much more affordable

Yahoo

16-05-2025

Jessica McClellan, president and founder of Giving Hope & Help Inc., wants her Kansas City nonprofit to help end period poverty and fight the stigma that surrounds menstruation (Suzanne King/The Beacon).
Tucked in to legislation Missouri lawmakers passed last week is a provision that will do away with the state sales tax on period products.
The measure doesn't represent a significant cost savings for consumers. It would only shave about 38 cents off a $9 box of tampons.
But advocates raising awareness about the financial burden some people face with every menstrual cycle — and the resulting health consequences — argue that doing away with the state 'tampon tax' does have symbolic importance.
'It's not going to cost (the state) that much,' said Emily Swanigan, a spokeswoman for Period, an education and advocacy group, 'but it's going to demonstrate that women's health is a priority.'
Missouri Republicans included the tax break on period supplies, along with diapers and incontinence products, in a bill passed May 7 that also eliminates the state's capital gains tax. In a statement, Republican House Speaker Jon Patterson of Lee's Summit called the bill 'family first legislation.' Gov. Mike Kehoe is expected to sign it.
'Cutting taxes on diapers and feminine hygiene products affects ALL Missouri families,' the statement said, 'and will have the greatest positive impact with low-income women and girls across Missouri.'
Democrats, too, have supported cutting taxes on necessities like period products and diapers. They did not support this bill because of the capital gains tax provision, which they argued will largely benefit wealthy Missourians and leave the state in fiscal peril.
But getting rid of the tax on period products and diapers is the right thing to do, said Rep. Jo Doll, a St. Louis County Democrat, who for five years has introduced legislation to remove the tax on menstrual products and diapers.
'The concept that we're taxing basic necessities as luxury items just seems absurd,' she said.
'I'm sure if you talk to anyone who uses diapers or period products, they can tell you they are not a luxury.'
Missouri is one of 20 states that still charge sales tax on period products.
Period, Swanigan's organization, estimates that Kansas collects just over $3 million annually on taxes assessed on period product sales, while Missouri brings in close to $8 million, a sliver of the state's $53 billion budget.
Kansas lawmakers have also considered legislation to do away with that state's tax on period products, but so far that effort has failed.
Still, advocates said, the fact that red states like Missouri and Kansas are considering the issue at all is evidence of growing awareness about 'period poverty,' the lack of access to affordable menstrual products. Alabama also recently passed a bill to eliminate its state tampon tax.
Experts said the COVID pandemic may have helped fuel awareness. Supply chain issues and lack of access to products at schools and other public places during the pandemic made the problem even more pronounced and harder to ignore.
Awareness helps in finding a solution to a problem that in past generations was rarely discussed, especially in public, Swanigan said. People are starting to see period products as an essential need, like medicine or food, she said.
'Even within the last two to five years, we've seen an increase in understanding about this issue,' Swanigan said. 'That's good news for future policy changes that could help more people.'
In addition to calling for an end to all sales taxes on these products — counties and cities tax them, too — Period wants to see government programs like Medicaid cover them. Food assistance programs like SNAP and WIC do not.
A 2023 survey commissioned by Period and Thinx Inc. found that a quarter of teens and one-third of adults struggled to pay for period products, which have been soaring in price. According to reporting by the Wall Street Journal, the price of tampons went up 36% between 2019 and 2024, while the cost of sanitary pads rose 41%.
It's a major financial strain for many families, said Jeanette Higgins, a nurse practitioner at Children's Mercy Hospital.
'Especially for low socioeconomic households,' Higgins said, 'they may be forced to choose between buying a menstrual product or buying food.'
The rising cost of menstrual products may be part of the reason Giving the Basics, a Kansas City-area nonprofit that provides pads, tampons and other hygiene supplies to shelters, food pantries and schools, has seen a sharp jump in demand for them.
In 2024, the organization distributed 750,000 period products around Kansas, Missouri and 18 other states. That was a 56% jump from the previous year, said Ashley Allison, the organization's marketing coordinator.
'It's one of our most requested products for sure,' she said. 'It's a huge need.'
Other Kansas City organizations, including Giving Hope & Help Inc. and Strawberry Week, also work on raising awareness and making supplies available to people in need.
When people can't afford proper supplies to manage their periods they often miss work, which has economic consequences. Kids also miss school and school-related activities. That not only can cause them to fall behind in their classes, it can lead to depression and anxiety, Higgins said.
'Fearing that when they have their period, are they going to have a product?' Higgins said. 'Are they going to have to miss an activity or have to miss school?'
Giving the Basics donates period products to 1,028 schools in Missouri and Kansas, including the Independence School District. Lori Halsey, that district's director of health services, said she wants every student to know they are welcome to take as much as they need for themselves and their family. In addition to donations from Giving the Basics, Halsey said the district relies on grants and funding from the state education department to meet the need.
'It is a struggle for girls to not have that resource,' Halsey said.
There are also health consequences. The 2023 survey from Period found that 40% of teens and more than half of adults have worn period products longer than recommended.
Higgins said using a pad or tampon too long can lead to infections or serious illness. Improvising with supplies not intended for that use can also cause infections, she said.
While more schools provide free products to students, asking for them can be intimidating, especially for teens. Stigma is another major hurdle in the fight to end period poverty.
'Girls, especially young girls, have a lot of trouble just even talking about periods,' Higgins said. 'Having to go to the nurse to discuss their period cannot be comfortable to begin with, and then they have to discuss why they don't have products available to them.'
That's why period products should be free and widely available, said Jessica McClellan, founder and president of Giving Hope & Help, a Kansas City organization that donates pads, tampons and other care items to people in need.
Just as people can find free toilet paper in virtually any public restrooms, she said, people should also find free menstrual supplies. And the world should stop being afraid to talk about periods.
'There's power in the period,' McClellan said, as she walked around her organization's Midtown storage room, stocked floor to ceiling with pads, tampons and other hygiene products destined for schools, domestic violence shelters and, sometimes, communities on the other side of the world.
'This is not a woman's health problem,' she said. 'This is a world health care problem that we can easily solve. And it's a world health care problem that's right here in Kansas City.'
This article first appeared on Beacon: Kansas City and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.