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A pair of bills filed in the North Carolina Senate would exempt feminine hygiene products from sales taxes. One of the bills would allocate $500,000 in school grants to improve access to feminine products.

Bipartisan legislation before the General Assembly would exempt menstrual products from sales taxes while expanding a grant pool for free essentials at schools.

Senate Bill 832 – the Menstrual Equity for All Act – would eliminate the sales tax on feminine hygiene products and appropriate $500,000 to the Department of Public Instruction for schools to apply for up to $5,000 in grants on a first-come, first-served basis to buy feminine products. Last year, 66 schools exhausted the grant’s initial allotment of $250,000.  

“As a woman, these are certainly not what I consider a luxury item,” said Sen. Natasha Marcus (D-Mecklenburg), co-sponsor of the bill. “If anything, they are a necessity, much more like a medical product than a beauty product or an extravagance in any way.”

SB 614, which Marcus sponsored during the long session, addressed the tax only.

Backers of the legislation contend that a so-called “period tax” creates economic and education strain for families struggling to pay for menstrual products. In the U.S., 1 out of 5 girls miss school during their menstrual cycle, according to Always, a national feminine hygiene brand. Bill advocates say girls who skip class because of their period on a monthly basis are more likely to be at risk of truancy and delayed graduation.

“You can imagine embarrassment, a lack of hygiene, and too often it leads young girls or teenage girls to not go to school or not participate in other activities because they don’t feel like they can leave the house,” Marcus said. “To me, it’s an issue. Unfortunately, a lot of our policymakers are men and they don’t give this much thought I guess, but to me, it’s a no-brainer that this is something we should look at to help encourage attendance in school.”

Research by Feeding America, a national network of food banks, shows low-income families are more likely to be unable to buy feminine hygiene products, and as a result skip or defer on rent payments in order to buy essentials like tampons and pads. Feminine care products are taxed in 30 states, including North Carolina, according to Global Citizen, a grassroots poverty elimination initiative.

Although feminine products like tampons and pads are classified as medical devices by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Internal Revenue Service doesn’t, which prevents people from using pre-tax dollars in health savings accounts or flexible spending accounts to buy them. Access has become more difficult since the COVID-19 outbreak, which impacted supplies and prices.

“Period poverty has drastically increased, especially since the pandemic with teenage girls in high school as well as adult women,” said Latoya Counts, president of the National Organization of 100 Black Women Queen City Metropolitan Chapter. “What we’re seeing has become an issue. Period poverty is basically not having access to those products and resources, so it has definitely drastically changed over the pandemic.”

Said Ricketa Harvey, executive director of Flo Charlotte, a nonprofit that provides feminine hygiene supplies to adults and teens who lack access to them: “I think there’s so much work to be done. You’re optimistic it’s going to pass and hope that people care about the well-being of those that are in need of the products and accessibility to them, but we can only hope.”

Flo Charlotte’s focus is primarily on homeless families, domestic violence shelters, schools, and safe spaces for LGBTQ teens and young adults. Recently, Harvey said, the nonprofit donated pads and tampons to 15 schools in the region, a sign of the ongoing need for better access. Menstrual products, bill advocates insist, are a necessity that should be available to everyone regardless of their economic situation.

“In a perfect world, those supplies will be provided for free to our students just like condoms are provided for free to the public with certain healthcare organizations,” Harvey said. “We would hope that the same will be done for period products.”

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