Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood

by Rose George

In 2017, New York State voted to provide adequate sanitary provisions to prisons, homeless shelters, and schools for free. It also revoked the tampon sales tax, as did eight other states.86 Ireland, Spain, and the Netherlands have removed the tampon tax; France has reduced it to 5.5 percent.87 In Switzerland, women filled thirteen Zurich fountains with red dye to protest the taxing of feminine hygiene at 8 percent (the rate reserved for luxury items; day-to-day products get 2.5 percent).88 In the UK the Conservative government pledged to remove the tax, did nothing, then used £250,000 (about $355,000) of sanitary product tax revenue to fund an antiabortion charity (despite promising that tampon tax revenues would support women’s shelters).89 Before he left office, President Barack Obama expressed surprise when he was told that forty US states tax feminine hygiene products as luxury items.