Tampons Should Be Free for All Women!

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By Evan Shelton

Pads and Tampons should be free. For everyone. Always and everywhere. The average woman spends 144 dollars a year on menstrual products. About 12 dollars a month. Maybe that does not sound like a lot of money but think about that. American women must buy the times. It is not a cigarette or a movie, it is basic necessity. Something that women need when they go to work, go out with friends or stay home.12 dollars every month, all months, always. These products not being free is the moral equivalent of taxing women for being, women.

As usual, the morality of menstrual products has taken a back seat the profit potential. As of 2018, tampons alone were a 44.25 billion dollar a year industry. The result is a market dominated by massive and powerful companies. Tampax reigns as heavy weight king in the industry. Controlling 29% of the market and generating 300 million dollars in sales in 2018. A profit that they and fellow heavy hitter, Johnson and Johnson are not eager to relinquish.

Private profit is only one of the injustices tied to menstrual products. The government gets in on it to. While federal representatives profit from the industry’s massive lobbying efforts, the states themselves continue to charge sales tax on every menstrual product purchase. A horrendous injustice when you consider Viagra (and thousands of other products) are exempted from sales tax nationwide.

There is some relief coming on that front. Nine states have exempted tampons from sales tax and more are following. But even when exempted from tax, the products still cost money. 14 dollars a month, every month, for decades of their lives. That is not right. In 33 years, an average American woman will spend 4,752 dollars on menstrual products. Money that could have been saved or spent elsewhere. It is not equal. In a country struggling with a gender pay gap, we are now charging women for something they cannot go without.

Pressure needs to be applied. Menstrual products not being free is a legitimate issue of inequity. They are a social and health necessity that 51% of the population has to use. The time has come for legitimate legislation to end the tax on women. Both abroad and in the United State, women struggle to afford tampons and pads. The time has come to look at these items not as luxuries that need to purchased, but necessities that must be provided.

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