Kansas advocates push again for more affordable period products

Chloe Chaffin, a board member for URGE, encourages young people to use their voice to lobby for more accessible period products at Menstrual Equity Lobby Day on Feb. 24, 2026, at the Statehouse in Topeka. (Photo by Grace Hills for Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — Young people gathered Tuesday in the Kansas Statehouse to show their support for bills that would make it easier to obtain period products.

But they were in the same place last year. And the year before that.

Missouri passed a bill eliminating the state sales tax on period products and diapers last year. Texas did so in 2023. But in Kansas, young people are still speaking meeting with legislators and drafting bills at the Statehouse.

Chloe Chaffin is a board member at URGE — Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equality. She said similar bills in Kansas get stuck in committee and never make it out because of a lack of political will and an unwillingness to talk about periods.

“I think that most people we talk to, on a human level, recognize the importance of the issue.” Chaffin said. “But some lawmakers decide to give up a little bit of their power or try and downplay the power that they do have because they don’t want to stick their neck out.”

Advocates called on lawmakers to support Senate Bills 389 and 107 and House Bill 2073 which would exempt period products, diapers and incontinence products from state sales tax, and House Bills 2067 which would provide free period products to students at Title I schools. None of the bills were heard by the Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee.

Chaffin said that young people gathered at the Statehouse for URGE’s “Menstrual Equity Lobby Day” to build power and to speak with the chairs of the committees that would hear the bills.

“Where the bills get stuck is that the committee chairs do not want to take them up, and even if the majority of a committee is in agreement about a policy,” Chaffin said. “If the all-powerful chair does not call it for a hearing, then it cannot advance. So we need to target not just all legislators broadly, but the power players that are most relevant specifically.”

Sen. Caryn Tyson, a Republican from Parker who chairs the Senate Assessment  and Taxation Committee, met with the lobbyists Tuesday. Tyson wouldn’t speak to Kansas Reflector.

Tyson chaired the committee last time a similar bill was heard, in 2024. It passed through committee, but was never heard by the Senate. The exemption was written into Gov. Laura Kelly’s 2024 tax proposal, but it was booted from the final result.

Jordan Dorsey says she once had to choose between food and tampons. (Photo by Grace Hills for Kansas Reflector)

Despite the proposal’s slow momentum, it seems to have bipartisan support. It was supported by Republican Derek Schmidt and Kelly during their 2022 gubernatorial campaigns.

Rep. Chuck Smith, a Republican from Pittsburg, is on the House Taxation Committee. He said eliminating the tax should be a bipartisan issue, and he’s not sure why it hasn’t moved — especially with spiking grocery prices.

“You know, the state’s spending more money right now than they’re bringing in, so that’d be the only reason I could tell you I think they’re not talking about it,” Smith said.

But he pointed out that the state hasn’t shied away from cutting sales tax in the past, especially on groceries.

“I think it’s the women and the children that probably need it the most,” Smith said. “So that doesn’t bother me at all.”

Jordan Dorsey is a women, gender and sexualities studies major at the University of Kansas. During her freshman year, she was a student athlete working two jobs.

“I remember my freshman year of college, having to choose between a $5 rotisserie chicken and a $10 box of tampons,” Dorsey said. “At the end of the day I was just a girl with a period. That is a decision that many women and children have to make every day.”

The bill would cut the state’s 6.5% sales tax on period products — including tampons, which cost about $9 for a box of about 30. The Kansas bill would have saved Dorsey about 60 cents. The similar bill in Missouri shaves about 38 cents off.

Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, supports legislation that would make period products more accessible. (Photo by Grace Hills for Kansas Reflector)

Advocates from both states say removing the sales tax is about more than the money saved: It is symbolic. Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said period products aren’t optional or just for those who can afford them. 

“Policies that eliminate financial barriers and ensure students, in particular, have access to period products at school, treat these essential items as what they are — essential to people’s lives, their health,” Wales said. “When we make period products accessible, and we normalize education about menstruation, we support public health.”

Chaffin said she’s heard from lawmakers that the change would be too expensive. She referenced a new law that forces transgender Kansans to use the bathroom aligned with their sex at birth, which local leaders say could cost millions to enforce.  

“They certainly have money set aside to take from local governments in a bounty on the heads of trans people just trying to use public restrooms,” Chaffin said. “There is resources, we just need to be the ones who can demand how it’s used.”