LANSING, Mich. – Canada already has eliminated taxation on feminine hygiene products, along with New York, Minnesota, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
It’s called the tampon tax and up until this point tampons and other feminine hygiene needs have been classified as medical luxuries, not necessities.
In Michigan, they are still considered luxury items, but bills introduced in the Michigan Senate by Sen. David Knezek (D) Dearborn Heights and Sen. Rebekah Warren (D) Ann Arbor would stop the state from taxing them.
“It really comes down to what we classify as medically necessary in the state of Michigan,” according to Knezek.
So far the Republican-controlled Senate has been less than excited about the prospect.
“By the time I was done giving my speech on the Senate floor, someone had put a tampon on my desk,” Knezek told Local 4.
He blew off the locker room hijinks but in interviewing women across metro Detroit, they didn’t find it funny — at all.
“It’s not funny, it’s immature,” said Naseem Ben-Abdelsam. “Why is it considered embarrassing or something you have to hide? Why is it funny to sneak a tampon on there. Is it funny to be a woman and bleed every single month? I really don’t understand why that’s comical.”