Appleton Feminist Group Sues Wisconsin Over Its 5% Sales Tax on Period Products

Appleton Area NOW, the Fox Valley chapter of the National Organization for Women, says it's suing Wisconsin to end the state's 5% sales tax on tampons, pads and other period products, WBAY reported Thursday. The group argues the products are medically necessary and the tax falls hardest on people with the least money.

The suit lands after years of failed attempts to repeal the tax through the Legislature, including bills backed by Republicans and Democrats from Northeast Wisconsin and two budget proposals from Gov. Tony Evers. The group hasn't said publicly where it filed or what legal claims it's making, and Fox Watershed couldn't find details of the filing.

What the group argues

Appleton Area NOW points to the American Medical Association, which considers menstrual products medically necessary. The group says Wisconsin is one of 18 states that still tax them and that the tax produces about 0.02% of the state's total tax revenue, a figure it didn't break down.

"Menstruation isn't a choice. It isn't a luxury," Melissa Bobula Miotke, the chapter's co-vice president of action, told WBAY. She said it's a normal bodily function for about half the population.

The costs add up over a lifetime. Period products run about $6,000 per person in the U.S. before tax, according to 2021 research cited by CNBC. Rep. Lee Snodgrass, D-Appleton, has said the average person uses more than 16,000 tampons or pads.

Two budgets, two bills, no repeal

Evers first tried to exempt menstrual products in his 2023-25 budget. On May 2, 2023, the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee stripped that exemption in a single vote that removed 545 of his proposals, along with exemptions for diapers and breastfeeding equipment, Wisconsin Watch reported.

He tried again in 2025, folding period products into a plan to drop the sales tax on diapers, over-the-counter medicine and household basics like toothpaste and sunscreen. His office said the package would save Wisconsinites $105.3 million over two years. Joint Finance removed it again to make room for other tax cuts.

Republicans have carried their own version. Assembly Bill 177, introduced in April 2025 by Rep. Lindee Rae Brill, R-Sheboygan Falls, and Sen. André Jacque, a Brown County Republican, would exempt diapers and feminine hygiene products. It drew cosponsors from both parties and was referred to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. The legislative record shows no hearing or vote after that.

In February, two Appleton lawmakers from opposite parties, Snodgrass and Republican Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, announced another bill to end the tax on menstrual products alone. Snodgrass called the tax regressive and discriminatory. It didn't become law, and the tax is still collected.

Who pays

Fox Valley advocates have tied the tax to school attendance. Julie Keller, executive director of the Women's Fund Fox Valley Region, said in February that more than 11% of Wisconsin women live in poverty and that even 5% can decide whether they get what they need. She cited survey findings that 84% of young people who menstruate know someone who missed class for lack of products.

Local groups have tried to fill the gap themselves. The Monthlies Project has handed out more than 1 million period products to more than 160 schools and organizations in Northeast Wisconsin since 2022, WBAY reported, and the Appleton Area School District stocks them in every one of its schools.

Wisconsin is increasingly an outlier. In early 2024, 21 states taxed period products, according to the Alliance for Period Supplies, and Texas, Colorado, Iowa, Virginia and Nebraska had dropped their taxes in the two years before that. WBAY and the Appleton advocates now put the number at 18.