End the Tampon Tax
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Though necessities like food and medical supplies are exempt from sales taxes in most states, all but a few tax sanitary pads and tampons. Now efforts are building to repeal this so-called “tampon tax” and help ensure that those who need these products can afford them.

The issue gained national attention after two members of the California State Assembly, Cristina Garcia and Ling Ling Chang, introduced a bill in January to make tampons and pads exempt from sales taxes in their state. Prescription drugs, most groceries and medical equipment like walkers are already exempt.

California’s bill would remove a tax that, as Ms. Garcia and Ms. Chang point out, unfairly penalizes women, who already make only 79 cents for every dollar men earn. And it would drive home the message that tampons and pads are necessities, not luxuries.

Women in California spend an average of $7 a month on tampons and pads. For those living in poverty, that cost is significant. They may have to choose between hygiene products and food or medicine. Food stamps do not cover feminine hygiene products.

Feminine hygiene products are already exempt from sales taxes in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Massachusetts. (Five other states have no sales taxes.) Bills like California’s have been introduced in Ohio, New York, Utah and Virginia.

President Obama expressed his support for such efforts in an interview in January with Ingrid Nilsen, a YouTube star. Women should “work to get those taxes removed,” he said.

Even without sales taxes, tampons and pads are unaffordable for some. In New York, a City Council member, Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, is working on legislation to require that all public schools in the city provide free tampons and pads in restrooms. She also hopes to work with nonprofit organizations and the city’s Department of Homeless Services to make feminine hygiene products more readily available to homeless women; food pantries and shelters sometimes struggle to keep the products in stock because of a lack of donations. In Congress, Representative Grace Meng, Democrat of New York, has introduced a bill that would allow people to pay for feminine hygiene products with their health care spending accounts.

Getting rid of taxes on these products is an important first step toward making them affordable for all.

廢除衛生棉條稅 全美熱議

全美各州目前紛紛辯論「衛生棉條稅」（tampon tax）的存廢問題，部分州議員認為，對女性衛生用品課稅，是讓女性肩負不公平負擔，尤其讓女性為月事付錢，無疑是罰上加罰。

Change.org網站已在全球發動連署行動，要求各國廢除對女性衛生用品的課稅。加拿大已於去年7月廢除「衛生棉條稅」，英國倫敦去年11月也曾發起「流血應免費」（free-bleed）示威，要求歐盟廢除該稅。

在紐約州，五名婦女本月初因紐約州徵收此稅提控，她們聲稱，對女性衛生用品課稅，違反聯邦和紐約州憲法保障的平等保護條文；另據報導，紐約州已通過法案，將廢除此稅，據指出，紐約市婦女每年為女性衛生用品所付的稅高達1400萬美元。

目前有五個州已廢除此稅，另五個州則廢除了州銷售稅。芝加哥市也已廢除衛生棉條稅。

在密西根州，州眾議員莎拉‧羅伯茲提出兩項法案，一項廢除女性衛生用品的6%州銷售稅，另一項法案則要求在公校和州府機構廁所，免費提供女性衛生棉墊和棉條。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/opinion/end-the-tampon-tax.html

2016-03-22 世界日報 編譯張玉琴