'Tampon tax': Texas is latest state to end taxes on period products

Texas will eliminate sales tax on menstrual products, as well as a handful of maternity products, this September, joining a growing number of states removing "period" or "pink" taxes.

Senate Bill 379, which passed in the 2023 legislative session, will end the sales tax of baby wipes, diapers, bottles, menstrual products, nursing bras and maternity clothes. The bill will go into effect next month.

Texas joins 23 other states and the District of Columbia that specifically ban a tax on period products and 17 other states that ban a tax on diapers (in addition to the five states without any sales tax).

Currently, 21 states tax period products. The taxes range from 4% to 7% according to the Alliance for Period Supplies. Five states do not have sales tax (Alaska, Oregon, Montana, Vermont and Delaware) and 24 states and the District of Columbia have created tax exemptions for period products.

Michigan was the first state to create a tax exemption for period products in 1981, followed by Pennsylvania in 1991.

The organization estimates that people who menstruate require about 40 period products per cycle.

Experts stress making period products affordable is critical to ending period poverty, defined as the inability to access period supplies and/or receive adequate menstrual health education.

In the U.S. today, one in four people who menstruate struggle to afford period products, according to Alliance for Period Supplies.

And a 2021 study from the nonprofit's founding sponsor, U by Kotex, showed that two in five people have struggled to purchase period products in their lifetime because of a lack of income – a 35% increase from 2018 research. Black, Latina and low-income respondents were among those impacted by period poverty the most, the study found.

As of 2023, 18 states and the District of Columbia have tax exemptions for diapers, according to the National Diaper Bank Network. The taxes range from 4% to 7%, though local taxes can push that rate toward 9% in some areas.

The organization estimates that children require 50 diaper changes per week or 200 diaper changes per month.

Contributing: Wyatte Grantham-Philips