ATLANTA (Jan. 22, 2024) — The Georgia coalition working to end the state sales tax on period products held a press conference last week at the State Capitol to highlight the recent classification of period products by the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board.

Sen. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta), a member of the Senate Committee on Finance, supports the effort, commenting, “I strongly support removing this sales tax from feminine hygiene products. We should improve access to these essential health products for women, not burden them with an unfair tax.”

Elle Knott, Advocacy Program Coordinator at YWCA of Greater Atlanta, summarized the group’s position by saying, “put simply, eliminating this tax would both remove financial barriers and end a discriminatory practice for women in Georgia. Now is the time for Georgia to modernize its code and become the 30^th state to eliminate taxes on menstrual products.”

As of December 2023, the National Streamline Sales Tax Governing Board classified menstrual products as Menstrual Discharge Collection Devices (MDCDs), recognizing them as medically necessary products. The purpose of the governing board’s language adoption was to standardize the tax code designation of period products throughout the country. This new language should resonate in Georgia as it focuses more on the medical nature, not choice, of these unique products for women and girls.

Clair Cox, Chair of STOMP shared at the press conference that “Georgia should not tax girls and women for being girls and women. MDCDs are classified by the FDA as medical devices and are an item about which women and girls have no choice to use – they are necessary for good health.”

Sydney Wilson, Spelman College Student and Georgia Women’s Policy Institute Fellow, also stated that “with period products being classified as necessary menstrual discharge collection devices (MDCDs), these items should not be taxed as if they are luxury items. Women are being most impacted by this unconstitutional tax, as there is no equivalent tax on any medical device that their male counterparts require. By ending this tax on menstrual products, we would be reducing the stigma around menstruation in the state of Georgia.”

Georgia changed its tax code in 1996 to exempt food, prescriptions and other needed non-prescription medical devices. If period products were exempted when these other basic needs were exempted, Georgia women would have saved $150M. Georgia women already experience poverty rates at higher than the national average.

For more than seven years, Georgia STOMP has led the effort in Georgia to eliminate the discriminatory sales tax on menstrual products and has ensured active bills were before the state legislature every session beginning in 2018. Cox states that “during the time we have been actively working in Georgia, the number of states in the US with no sales tax on period products has more than doubled, with 29 states now having no state tax on menstrual products. Texas and Virginia are among these most recently joining the list.”

About Georgia STOMP:

Georgia STOMP is a robust coalition of 37 organization spanning the state, including member organizations YWCA Greater Atlanta, Helping Mamas, Health Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition, Over the Moon-Savannah, Junior Leagues of Georgia State Public Affairs Committee, IGNITE, Atlanta Grow, PERIOD of N. Gwinnett High School and Macon Periods Easier.

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Sen. Nan Orrock serves as the Democratic Caucus Secretary. She represents the 36th Senate District which includes portions of Fulton County. She may be reached at 404.463.8054 or by email at nan.orrock@senate.ga.gov.

ATLANTA (June 22, 2023) | Senator Nan Grogan Orrock (D – Atlanta), Representative Kim Schofield (D – Atlanta) and Richard Rose, President of the Atlanta NAACP, announced they have filed comments urging Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to address concerns about the Board of Regents’ plan to turn over control of Augusta University Health System (AUHS) to Wellstar Health Systems, Inc.

State law requires the Attorney General to review a proposed transfer of control of any non-profit hospital for the purpose of safeguarding its charitable assets and ensuring that the transaction proceeds are used for appropriate charitable health care purposes. Attorney General Carr’s office is currently conducting a review of Wellstar’s proposed acquisition of AUHS and will hold a public hearing in Augusta on June 27.

“All Georgians have a stake in what happens to AUHS because it is the primary teaching hospital for Medical College of Georgia,” said Sen. Orrock. “The hospital and clinics need to be operated by people whose organizational culture and practices demonstrate their trustworthiness for the mission of training professionals and providing high quality care rather than simply pursuing business opportunities.”

Atlanta NAACP President Richard Rose says, “Wellstar violated our trust when it chose in 2022 to abandon suddenly the largely minority communities formerly served by Atlanta Medical Center and Atlanta Medical Center South even as it was undertaking to acquire AUHS, and with it, the opportunity to build a new hospital and doctors office complex in mostly white Columbia County. Do we think Wellstar’s record here suggests the company is a dependable party to control an institution so important to the state?”

“Furthermore, Wellstar has not yet made amends for the damage it caused our communities when it closed the hospitals,” adds Representative Schofield.

Sen. Orrock and Rep. Schofield represent the districts where these hospitals were located. They say their constituents have suffered a severe reduction in their access to health care which has been documented in a new study completed by Ernst and Young for Fulton County and Morehouse Medical School.

Sen. Orrock emphasizes, “We are still working to ensure Wellstar compensates our communities so that they can restore services and improve access to quality care. Attorney General Carr should consider the potential for Wellstar to face financial obligations and limitations that could affect their plans and promises with regard to AUHS.”

Three federal complaints on the Wellstar closures are pending before the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The complaints to OCR and DOJ concern the fact that Wellstar’s closure of the two Atlanta hospitals, citing a disparate negative impact on patients who are Black or other people of color. The complainants ask that the agencies investigate Wellstar, a recipient of federal funds required to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, make findings on whether Wellstar’s actions violate the Act, and if so, require Wellstar to redress fully the harm to the community.

The complaint to the IRS is based on Internal Revenue Code requirements that nonprofit hospitals meet certain obligations in order to qualify for their tax-exempt status. Among those being that nonprofit hospitals must conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment and then adopt an implementation strategy to meet the identified needs.

The complaint states that Wellstar identified critical needs in the community served by the two hospitals, first among them, access to health services, but instead of planning to meet those needs, Wellstar closed down its hospital and physician’s office services, severely disrupting an existing ecosystem of care that had served the community for decades. The complaint asks the IRS to determine whether Wellstar continues to qualify for tax benefits.

Sen. Orrock stated, “IRS has revoked at least one hospital’s tax exemption for a failure like Wellstar’s to adopt an implementation strategy.” She continued, “Besides requiring Wellstar to pay federal, state and local taxes, a revocation of its charitable tax-exempt status would seem likely to disqualify Wellstar from taking over AUHS, given the Attorney General’s obligation to safeguard AUHS’s charitable assets.”

Rep. Schofield said, “We urge Attorney General Carr to ensure that Georgia’s interests with regard to the AUHS hospital and other facilities are rigorously protected.”

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Sen. Nan Orrock serves as the Democratic Caucus Secretary. She represents the 36th Senate District which includes portions of Fulton County. She may be reached at 404.463.8054 or by email at nan.orrock@senate.ga.gov.