In most states in the US, “necessity” items like basic foods and medicines are exempt from taxes. The theory is that the government should not profit from “non-luxury” items nor should these basic needs go unmet because a person might not be able to pay taxes to acquire an item. Yet every month, in my state (New York, generally a very progressive place) approximately 29% of the entire population pays a special tax, according to figures I pulled from the 2005 Census update. All 5,372,092 of these people are women of reproductive age (which I estimated to be from 10 – 54 years old).