Dear Editor:

For the seventh straight legislative session, Georgia's leaders ignored the voices of women calling for the elimination of the discriminatory tax on menstrual products.
Period products, referred to as Menstrual Discharge Collection Devices (MDCDs), are necessary medical devices required by women and girls to do basic things like go to work, go to school, and fully participate in society. There is no male equivalent and those who menstruate have no choice about their use.
Despite regularly issuing tax exemptions for necessary (and many non-necessary) goods, state leadership chooses to ignore the discriminatory nature of this tax and refuses to allow the measure to come for a vote. As Crossover Day occurred last week, women were denied yet another opportunity for tax relief and the end of this inequity.
Our coalition of 37 organizations has worked with legislators to ensure an active bipartisan bill was under the Gold Dome every year since 2018. We've watched the number of states who have no tax on period products increase from 14 to 29, with states like Texas and Virginia being among the most recent. When will our legislators consider this particular exemption a priority?
If menstrual products were exempted in 1996 along with groceries and prescription drugs, women would have paid $150M less in taxes, money that would have been invested in the economy and benefited Georgia families. The fact that menstrual products remain subject to the state sales tax shows women that the <0.01% in revenue that this tax generates for the state is more important than eliminating this unfair financial burden.

Sincerely,
Claire Cox, Chair, Georgia STOMP
Macon