For many people, menstrual products like pads, tampons and liners are as essential as putting food on the table. But on top of already rising prices, state law in Arizona still puts a luxury tax on them.
That’s part of why volunteers gathered in Tempe last week to pack hundreds of period supply bags for women facing poverty or homelessness.
Ilce Blancarte with Philips Law Group said that thanks to their work, Women4Women Tempe will have close to 200 well-packed bags to distribute.
“This is not a luxury thing,” Blancarte said. “It's about health. It’s about dignity. It’s about security, empowerment, everything. These should be for free, for every single girl in this country. End of story, period.”
Blancarte said she'd like to see the tax gone. But in the meantime, she looks forward to hosting the next packing party.
Women4Women Tempe co-founder Kay Wright said that even amid heightened need and prices alike, the joy at period packing parties is also key.
“It's a person – it’s a human thing, and it's nothing to be embarrassed about or ashamed of,” Wright said.
Wright said that when volunteers gather to fill paper lunch bags with neat stacks of pads, bunches of tampon or a handful of sanitary wipes, the conversation can be just as important.
First-time volunteer Isabella VanKampen is studying forensic psychology at Arizona State University. She said despite the lingering stigma, “it is normal, and something women around the Valley and everywhere need help with.”
And while they’ve felt expensive in the past, VanKampen added that on top of the rising price of everything, Arizona’s persistent luxury tax is “almost unfair in a way that stuff is so expensive because it’s not like women have a choice whether or not they’re going to get their periods.”
Now that she’s better acquainted with what’s often called period poverty and how often it can fly under the radar, VanKampen said she can carry this awareness into her career.
