A group of young women have teamed up with a prestigious Houston law firm to get the state to stop charging sales tax on menstrual products, arguing they qualify as “wound care dressings.”
Sahar Punjwani, a University of Chicago student from Houston, poses for a portrait on Friday in Chicago's Jackson Park. She is one of two young women taking on the Texas comptroller after the Legislature declined to remove the sales tax on menstrual products., our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
Punjwani, now 20, said it’s not surprising to her that this effort to repeal the sales tax for menstrual products is being led by a group of teenagers. In her experience, there’s still a lot of stigma around discussing periods among older generations. Eighteen-year-old Zoe Kass holds a handful of pads in her high school bathroom in Houston on Thursday. Kass is a menstrual equity advocate and has raised hundreds of dollars to purchase menstrual products for students at her school.Kass, now 18, first got involved with this issue while volunteering in the obstetrics clinic at Ben Taub Hospital in Houston.
None of those bills ever made it out of committee. But in early 2021, Kass got the call: Howard’s bill was going before the state House Ways and Means Committee, and she was being asked to testify. But the coalition was already working on another angle to repeal the tax, starting with Punjwani’s receipt for $1.78.As part of their legislative advocacy work, the coalition met with the Women’s Health Caucus, where they first discussed the idea of bringing a legal challenge to the tax on menstrual supplies. Kass asked her dad if he knew any lawyers who could help them explore this avenue, and he connected them with prestigious Houston law firm Baker Botts.
“We view this inequitable application of wound care dressings as discrimination on the basis of sex,” said Shoemaker McGonagill. “For example, gender-neutral products, like Band-Aids, are tax-exempt and feminine hygiene products are not.” Shoemaker McGonagill said working with the young women behind this movement has been one of the more inspiring experiences of her career.
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