everyone has their own point of view about prostitution
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PRO (yes) CON (no)
The Prostitutes' Education Network wrote in its "Prostitution Act of 1996" provided on its website
(accessed Jan. 16, 2009):
"No person's human or civil rights should be violated on the basis of their trade, occupation, work, or
calling or profession.
No law has ever succeeded in stopping prostitution.
Prostitution is the provision of sexual services for negotiated payment between consenting adults. So
defined, prostitution is a service industry like any other in which people exchange skills for money or
other reward...
Nonconsenting adults and all children forced into sexual activity (commercial or otherwise) deserve
the full protection of the law and perpetrators deserve full punishment by the law.
Workers in the sex industry deserve the same rights as workers in any other trade, including the right
to legal protection from crimes such as sexual harassment, sexual abuse and rape...
There are some unscrupulous people in all walks of life government, law, journalism, banking, law
enforcement, the stock exchange, medicine, the clergy, prostitution, etc. If every profession were
criminalised when some of its members broke the law, there would be few legally sanctioned
professions. Unscrupulous people should be summarily dealt with by the law, regardless of which
profession they corrupt."
Jan. 16, 2009 Prostitutes' Education Network
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), wrote in its 2007 Policy 211, faxed to ProCon.org on
Apr. 30, 2007:
"The ACLU supports the decriminalization of prostitution and opposes state regulation of prostitution.
The ACLU also condemns the abuse of vagrancy or loitering laws or licensing or regulatory schemes
to harass and arrest those who may be engaged in solicitation for prostitution. While there are both
male and female prostitutes, laws against prostitution most frequently refer to, or are applied to
woman. Despite the statutory stress on female prostitution, the ACLU's policy is applicable to
prostitutes of both sexes....
Such laws have traditionally represented one of the most direct forms of discrimination against
women. The woman who engage in prostitution is punished criminally and stigmatized socially while
her male customer, either by the explicit design of the statute or through a pattern of discriminatory
enforcement is left unscathed.
Prostitution laws are also a violation of the right of individual privacy because they impose penal
sanctions for the private sexual conduct of consenting adults. Whether a person chooses to engage in
sexual activity for purposes of recreation, or in exchange for something of value, is a matter of
individual choice, not for governmental interference. Police use of entrapment techniques to enforce
laws against this essentially private activity is reprehensible. Similarily, the use of loitering and
vagrancy laws to punish prostitutes for their status or to make arrests on the basis of reputation and
appearance, is contrary to civilized notions of due process of law.
Since the ACLU policy is that prostitution should not be made criminal, solicitation for prostitution is
entitled to the protection of the First Amendment.
The ACLU reaffirms its policy favoring removal of criminal penalties for prostitution and in support of
total sexual freedom among consenting adults in private."
2007 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Umberto Tirelli, MD, Director of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Centro di Riferimento
Oncologico (CRO Oncologic Referral Center) of the National Cancer Institute (Aviano, Italy), wrote
in the article "Health and Tax Legislation for Prostitutes" on his website www.umbertotirelli.it
(accessed Jan. 16, 2009):
"It is [for] some time that I have been pointing out that the introduction of an adhoc regulation for
prostitution in Italy is most urgent for a number of reasons: fight against organized crime,
rehabilitation of certain areas of our towns and for healthrelated conditions. In reorganizing
prostitution we could follow the examples set by such towns as Amsterdam and Berlin, where
prostitution is restricted to specific areas or to specific places which are regularly controlled by health
and tax inspectors. The means to enforce a regulation for prostitution may vary but the end is only
one: take prostitutes away from the street and from the criminal gangs and keep an activity which is
presently more or less underground under tax and health controls."
Jan. 16, 2009 Umberto Tirelli, MD
The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in its 2005 document "Dutch Policy on Prostitution:
Questions and Answers" provided on its website:
"To end abuses in the sex industry, the Netherlands decided to change the law to reflect everyday
reality. It is now legal to employ prostitutes who are over the age of consent, and do the work
voluntarily, but stricter measures have been introduced under criminal law to prevent exploitation.
The legalisation of brothels enables the government to exercise more control over the sex industry and
counter abuses. The police conduct frequent controls of brothels and are thus in a position to pick up
signs of human trafficking. This approach is in the interests of prostitutes themselves, and it facilitates
action against sexual violence and abuse and human trafficking...
An important spinoff of the policy is that it prevents human trafficking, which is characterised by
exploitation, coercion and violence. The lifting of the ban on brothels makes prostitution a legitimate
occupation and gives prostitutes the same rights and protection as other professionals.
The labour laws offer the most effective protection against exploitation, violence and coercion. The
policy is based on the conviction that strengthening the position of women is the best way to combat
sexual violence. Moreover, abuses are easier to detect when prostitutes operate publicly and legally
rather than in a clandestine subculture."
2005 Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Catherine Healy, National Coordinator of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, was quoted as
having stated in the Dec. 4, 2004 British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News online article "New
Zealand Vice Battle 'Not Over Yet'":
"We were very determined but didn't think we'd actually achieve getting the law changed. It was a long
battle over 15 years to get those draconian measures off our statutes books.
I started working on the streets in 1972 when I was a student and then I went into brothel work and
massage parlours in the 80s... The client of course was totally supported by the law it wasn't against
the law to ask or pay for sex but it was against the law to ask for money for sex which of course was
the activity the sex workers couldn't avoid...
Since the change in the law, people feel they can approach the police and report violence. And it has
changed the dynamics between sex workers and clients."
Dec. 4, 2004 Catherine Healy
Sue Bradford, MA, Member of New Zealand's Parliament, wrote in the July 30, 2001 New Zealand
Herald article "Dialogue: Sex Workers Deserve Protection of the Law":
"New Zealand has lived in the 19th century for far too long. In this day and age, do most of us really
accept that it is fair to arrest and convict sex workers for soliciting while their male (usually) clients
do not risk criminalisation?...
Prostitution has been a career option for some people since history began. Nothing any law has done
has changed or will change that. Sex workers provide a service which is needed and wanted by many...
I cannot accept that in this day and age our nation should continue to make criminals of sex workers
because the Bible says it is wrong. In the first place, Christianity is not the state religion of New
Zealand, and even within Christianity there are different interpretations of the Bible and related
teachings. Secondly, the only prostitutes directly condemned in the Bible were those who used sex as a
method of worship, which is not something commonly practised in this country.
The Bible takes a much stronger stand against adultery than against common whoredom, but I doubt
that even the more conservative among us would wish to see adulterers cooling their heels in Auckland
Central police station...
And I don't lack a conscience because I believe we would all be better off in a society which had the
honesty to accept the job choice that some adults make as valid and worthy of care and compassion,
for all our sakes."
July 30, 2001 Sue Bradford
John TurleyEwart, PhD, Deputy Comment Editor for National Post, wrote in his July 7, 2006
National Post article "Lessons From a German Brothel":
"The assumption underlying much of the bad press Germany has received is that decriminalization is a
boon to the underworld. In fact, the opposite is closer to the truth. Prostitution is like any other
industry. Make it illegal, and you give criminals a monopoly. Legalize it, and you give lawabiding
enterprises a ch iance to compete....
Moreover, regulated brothels now are operated as legitimate businesses, and so attract professional
managers as opposed to underworld thugs.
...For all concerned, the best course of action is to bring this business under the ambit of the law.
When prostitutes need protection, to whom do we want them to turn thugs and mafiosi, or doctors
and police?"
July 7, 2006 John TurleyEwart, PhD
Teela Sanders, DPhil, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Leeds, was quoted as having
stated in the Mar. 8, 2007 Independent article "Against The Grain: 'Sex Workers Must Be Protected'":
"Nothing's changed since Ipswich. Five women can be murdered and nothing will be done. A hundred
sex workers have been killed in the last 10 years. Sex workers face rape, violence, and murder every
day they're out there. It's a fact of the system and the Government knows this.
But sex work doesn't fit the Government's ideas of morality. It starts from a position that all
prostitution is violence against women. The police say they won't accept street prostitution, so the
women are all criminals... Where prostitution is legal, in Utrecht and Cologne, there have never been
any murders.
The sale of sexual services per se is not all that different from selling other services. I don't think that
sexual labour under the right conditions, as opposed to mental labour or physical labour, is about
violation. Loads of sex workers have done professional jobs. A lot have been nurses. They say they did
far more dehumanising things as nurses than in sex work. And they now have control over the hours
they work.
Street prostitution is never going to be eradicated. Enabling women to do it safely is what policy
should be about... There is an argument that regulation increases prostitution, but how do they know?
If local authorities gave brothels licences they would have the ability to control it. You would have
quotas and limits."
Mar. 8, 2007 Teela Sanders, DPhil
Paul R. Abramson, PhD, Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles
(UCLA), wrote in his 2003 book Sexual Rights in America: The Ninth Amendment and the Pursuit of
Happiness:
"...The evidence from Nevada suggests that decriminalization, in tandem with legal regulatory
schemes, would better protect the health and safety of both prostitutes and their customers."
2003 Paul R. Abramson, PhD
Margo MacDonald, Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), was quoted as having stated in the Jan.
6, 2006 article "Is Europe Ready for 'Whore Power'?" posted on www.alternet.org:
"The Swedish situation is that they banned sex for sale, which we don't think is feasible. It drives it
underground, and when it's driven underground, criminality, the trafficking of women, and drugs are
under much less scrutiny by the police, because they just don't have the intelligence about what's going
on if the women are hidden.
...Whether people like it or not, it is sex between two consenting adults."
Jan. 6, 2006 Margo MacDonald
Leah Platt Boustan, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California at Los
Angeles (UCLA), wrote in the article "Regulating the Global Brothel," published in the July 2, 2001
issue of The American Prospect:
"In order to use labor laws to protect women in the sex industry, the legal status of prostitution and its
offshootsbrothel keeping, pimping, soliciting, paying for sexwould need to be reexamined. After
all, the Department of Justice does not ensure minimum wages for drug runners or concern itself with
working conditions in the Mob.
But whether or not we approve of sex work or would want our daughters to be thus employed, the
moral argument for condemnation starts to fall apart when we consider the conditions of abuse
suffered by real women working in the industry. Criminalization has been as unsuccessful in
dismantling the sex industry as it has been in eliminating the drug trade and preventing backalley
abortions.
Sex work is here to stay, and by recognizing it as paid labor governments can guarantee fair treatment
as well as safe and healthy work environmentsincluding overtime and vacation pay, control over
condom use, and the right to collective bargaining."
July 2, 2001 Leah Platt Boustan, PhD
Margo St. James, Founder of Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE), was quoted as having stated
in the Mar. 511, 1998 Sonoma County Independent article "Margo St. James on the Power of Sex and
Dangerous Beauty":
"There's such a stigma about the money!... Well, that's the big taboo: sleeping with men for money. It's
perfectly legalin this state anywayfor a woman to have sex with anyone she chooses, at any time.
But the minute five cents changes handsthen boom! She's a whore, and she goes to jail. It's
ludicrous."
Mar. 511, 1998 Margo St. James
Heidi Fleiss, former madam, was quoted as having stated in the Dec. 9, 2003 transcript "Heidi Fleiss:
The Former Hollywood Madam Discusses Her Life and Her New Book" on the courtTV website:
"I think the laws on prostitution are archaic. Especially in regards to pornography if a camera's
there, it's okay. I think if the U.S. decriminalized and regulated it, then everyone would benefit. By
making it illegal, this is where murders, and drugs, and nefarious activity comes in. That's why the
women always suffer..."
Dec. 9, 2003 Heidi Fleiss
Alan Young, LLM, Associate Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, wrote
in the article "Home Sweet Hooker," published in the Jan. 5, 2006 issue of NOW magazine:
"Sex trade workers have had an enormous fall from grace from the sacred temple harlots of ancient
times to the marginalized outcasts exposed to all manner of violence, abuse and ridicule of today...
Every time a prostitute is arrested, two more take her place. There's a bottomless market for their
services. I'm sure some cops, lawyers and judges sometimes enter this market, but they can never admit
it because it would undercut their authority to arrest, prosecute and punish those who gave them
release the day before.
Whether one pays to participate in an orgy or to hire the services of a prostitute, I see no reason to
bring in the heavy guns of the criminal law. When it comes to sex, I see only one legal rule of any real
importance: for sex to be lawful there only needs to be consent, and it should not matter whether
consent is secured by direct payment or weeks of expensive courtship with fine dining and false
promises."
Jan. 5, 2006 Alan Young, LLB, LLM
Pelham D. Glassford, former Police Chief of Washington, DC, was quoted in the May 11, 1936 TIME
article "Policeman on Prostitution" as having stated:
"The practice of prostitution has been technically licensed by the [Phoenix] police for a period of
many years. The women from the 'redlight' district are arraigned before the Magistrates Court once a
month and invariably plead guilty. Those charged with being inmates of a house of prostitution pay a
fine of $25, those charged with operating a house of prostitution pay $50. The city derives a revenue
from this source of approximately $20,000 a year...
The advantages of the existing system are: that practically all prostitutes are known to the police and
can be kept under supervision; the city derives a substantial revenue, and prostitution is kept out of the
residential districts....
Prostitution is as old as history. It is in violation of our .laws [sic] and ordinances. It cannot be
eliminated by legislation nor by law enforcement.
I AM CONVINCED THAT THE ONLY PRACTICAL SOLUTION IS LEGALIZED PROSTITUTION,
UNDER RIGID POLICE AND HEALTH SUPERVISION."
May 11, 1936 Pelham D. Glassford
Kirby R. Cundiff, PhD, Associate Professor of Finance at Northeastern State University, wrote in his
Apr. 8, 2004 article "Prostitution and Sex Crimes," published on the Independent Institute's website:
"...The analysis seems to support the hypothesis that the rape rate could be lowered if prostitution was
more readily available. This would be accomplished in most countries by its legalization. In the United
States where prostitution is illegal, the lowend price for most prostitutes is about $200 and the
monthly per capita income is $2,820. In Amsterdam, Netherlands where prostitution is legal the price
is $30. If prostitution were legalized in the United States it is rational to assume that prices would
resemble those in the Netherlands, this would result in... a decrease in the rape rate of 10 per 100,000.
The population of the United States if roughly 275 million so this should result is a decrease of
approximately 25,000 rapes per year."
Apr. 8, 2004 Kirby R. Cundiff, PhD
Linda M. Rio Reichmann, JD, an undergraduate student at the time of the quote, who later became
Director of the American Bar Association's (ABA) Child Custody Pro Bono Project, stated in an Apr.
1991 Archives of Sexual Behavior article titled "Psychological and Sociological Research and the
Decriminalization or Legalization of Prostitution":
"The sociological and psychological data supporting the legal and policy justifications for the
decriminalization or legalization of prostitution reveal that the costs of criminal prohibition outweigh
the benefits. The evidence concerning the negative impacts of the present criminal status of prostitution
supports the conclusion of the San Francisco Committee on Crime that 'we can do little worse by
trying something different.' The evidence concerning the positive effects of decriminalization suggests
that we can do a great deal better."
Apr. 1991 Linda M. Rio Reichmann, JD
Sherry F. Colb, JD, Professor of Law and Judge Frederick Lacey Scholar at Rutgers Law School, wrote
in her Dec. 17, 2006 email to ProCon.org:
"Prostitution should not be a crime. Prostitutes are not committing an inherently harmful act. While
the spread of disease and other detriments are possible in the practice of prostitution, criminalization
is a sure way of exacerbating rather than addressing such effects. We saw this quite clearly in the time
of alcohol prohibition in this country....
I would like the government to decriminalize prostitution but to regulate it in the way that other
intimate service professions (such as massage therapists and doctors) are regulated on the basis of
hygienerelated concerns.
One thing I would add is that there is a doublestandard that permeates the enforcement of laws
against prostitution. The prostitutes are harassed, arrested, and sometimes prosecuted, while the johns
(and often the pimps, who are far more likely to be engaged in violent and master/slavelike treatment
of the prostitutes) are ignored. This reflects the view that men who traffic in women are not as bad as
the women in whom they traffic. If people are honestly concerned about the wellbeing of women in this
profession, then they must begin by removing the status of 'outlaw' from these women so that they can
come forward and receive help if and when they feel they want to leave a profession that can otherwise
be quite difficult to escape."
Dec. 17, 2006 Sherry F. Colb, JD
Camille Paglia, PhD, Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at the University of the Arts, was
quoted as having stated in the article "Interview: Camille Paglia The Prostitute, The Comedienne &
Me," in the Jan./Feb. 1995 issue of Urban Desires:
"Feminists like to quote these absolutely specious statistics, a typical trick of the feminist movement of
the last twenty years. For example, they'll say the majority of prostitutes have been sexually abused as
children. But there's no evidence for this! The most successful prostitutes are invisible, because the
sign of a prostitute's success is her absolute blending with the environment. She's so shrewd, she never
becomes visible. She never gets in trouble. She has command of her life, and her clients. The ones who
get into the surveys have drug problems or psychological problems. They're the ones who were
sexually abused. Feminists are using amateurs to condemn a whole profession. This is appalling!
I'm against the harassment of prostitutes. Unless they are actually interfering with people's
movements, they have a perfect right to be doing what they're doing."
Jan./Feb. 1995 Camille Paglia, PhD
Vaclav Maly, Auxiliary Bishop of Prague, was quoted as having stated in the May 4, 2002 article
"Czech Bishop Calls for Legalising Prostitution" on the Radio Prague website:
"I am not making a moral judgment here. I see prostitution as a reality of the modern world. The
chances of eliminating it are practically nil. Under those circumstances it is better to keep it in check
and under control by giving it a legal framework. This is not to say that I approve of brothels but it
seems to me that it would be better to have prostitution take place there with medical checkups and
prostitutes paying taxes. It would be the lesser of two evils."
May 4, 2002 Vaclav Maly
Annie Sprinkle, PhD, Sexologist and former prostitute, wrote in her 2006 book Hardcore from the
Heart: The Pleasures, Profits and Politics of Sex in Performance:
"I entertained and had sex with all kinds of men, from the rich and famous, to Hasidic Jewish
businessmen, from Mafia gangsters, to police officers. Naturally I had quite a few clients who worked
as judges and lawyers. The men of the legal profession were generally respectful, good tippers (often
we made about the same hourly wage), and always in a hurry to get back to work. They came to me
racked with stress and tension, and left feeling relaxed and blissful. I could take pride in my work. I'm
convinced that without prostitution, the legal system could not function...
I continued to do prostitution for twenty years. I've always been involved in the grass roots movement
to decriminalize prostitutionthe political cause which is most near and dear to my heart. We’ve made
some baby steps. It's really about time that someone, somehow, challenge the prostitution laws and get
them thrown in the garbage where they belong. It is absurd and mean spirited to make consensual sex
a crime."
2006 Annie Sprinkle, PhD
Hugh Loebner, PhD, President of Crown Industries, wrote in his Aug. 18, 1994 "To the Editor" letter in
the New York Times:
"I am a 'john.' I make no apology. In any rational universe the fact that I am able to have a sexual
experience with a consenting adult only if I pay that adult would be nobody's business but mine.
Tragically, this is not the case. I am guilty of a crime and subject to arrest. So are those sex workers
who tend to my needs."
Aug. 18, 1994 Hugh Loebner, PhD
George Flint, Senior Lobbyist for the Nevada Brothel Owners Association, was quoted as having stated
in the Dec. 22, 2003 Las Vegas ReviewJournal article "Prostitution Lobbyist Faithful to Cause":
"Other than the urge to survive, the urge for sex in a normal man is the strongest urge he has to deal
with. I have come to the conclusion that legal and regulated prostitution is better than the alternative
since it eliminates pimps and eliminates crimes on the client and on the woman."
Dec. 22, 2003 George Flint
Harry Browne, Libertarian Party Candidate for US President in 1996 and 2000, wrote in his 2000 book
The Great Libertarian Offer:
"It's not difficult for a free society to keep violent crime to a minimum — with little intrusion on
individual liberty and at relatively low cost. But governments also prosecute 'victimless' crimes. These
are acts that (1) are illegal, (2) involve no intrusion on anyone's person or property, and (3) about
which no injured party files a complaint with the police. These acts include such things as prostitution,
gambling, and drug use. They are activities in which all parties participate voluntarily...
Either individuals are responsible for their own acts — including their choices of relationships — or
the government is responsible for everything you do. There is no middle ground. Giving government
the power to outlaw consensual activity allows the politicians to impose any laws they want on you.
And they will use that power."
2000 Harry Browne
Cecilia Hoffman, Secretary of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Asia Pacific
(CATWAP), wrote in the Aug. 1997 paper "SEX: From Human Intimacy to 'Sexual Labor' or Is
Prostitution a Human Right?" published on the CATWAP website:
"Prostitution violates the right to physical and moral integrity by the alienation of women’s
sexuality that is appropriated, debased and reduced to a commodity to be bought and sold.
It violates the prohibition of torture and of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
because clients’ acts and practices of sexual 'entertainment' and pornography are acts of power and
violence over the female body.
It violates the right to liberty and security, and the prohibition of slavery, of forced labor and of
trafficking in persons because millions of women and girls all over the world are held in sexual
slavery to meet the demand of even more millions of male buyers of sex, and to generate profits for
the capitalists of sex.
It violates the right to enjoy the highest standard of physical and mental health because violence,
disease, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and AIDS stalk, presenting constant and grave
risks for women and girls in prostitution, and militating against a healthy sense of and relationship
with their own bodies."
Aug. 1997 Cecilia Hoffman
John Bambenek, Executive Director of the Tumaini Foundation, wrote in his Jan. 2, 2007 post
"The ACLU Is Fighting for the Trafficking of Women Worldwide" on his PartTime Pundit
blog:
"One cannot support the reduction of AIDS infections and support legal prostitution at the same
time. Prostitution remains one of the leading vectors for AIDS infection. This is true in the case of
both legal and illegal prostitution...
Prostitutes, because of their many partners, have a greatly increased risk of exposure to HIV. They
are likewise able to spread HIV to many other partners...
The redefinition of prostitution as 'commercial sex work' is just an attempt to legitimize sex
trafficking. It should come as no surprise the ACLU and Planned Parenthood have signed on.
While both groups are considered 'prowoman', it is odd that they support an industry of flagrant
abuse of women...
There are a multitude of studies to show the high level of abuse that prostitutes suffer. Women are
literally bought and sold as property. The incidence of drug addiction is high among women,
partially explaining why they became prostitutes to begin with.
The argument for legalization goes something like this. Prostitution will happen anyway but
legalization and regulation will help stem the abuses. The argument has 50,000 foot appeal. Using
the same logic, slavery (which still exists in many places) should be legalized so underground slaves
can be given some measure of human rights. The fact that the ACLU and the bevy of leftwing
international groups don't argue for the legalization of slavery shows the logical inconsistency of
their position.
Further, the legalization of abortion has shown that it lead to a radical increase in abortion. The
legalization will lead to an untold number of women being forced into sex slavery. Make no mistake,
women will be forced into commercial sex work in greater numbers if it were legalized."
Jan. 2, 2007 John Bambenek
Thomas KleineBrockhoff, Senior Director at the German Marshall Fund of the United States,
wrote in his Jan. 29, 2007 article "Legalization Opens Criminal Floodgates" posted on the
PostGlobal website:
"My home country of Germany is one of the few nations to legalize prostitution. Proponents of
legalization argue that all attempts to deal with the sex business have failed and the only option left
untried is decriminalization...
Legalized prostitution creates the same problems that legalized marijuana does. While prostitution is
legal, forced prostitution is not. The latter occurs, and the new German law unintentionally makes it
harder to hunt down human traffickers, especially from Eastern Europe and Africa. Similarly, it is
harder to combat underaged prostitution. With legalized marijuana and prostitution, Amsterdam
became a magnet for human traffickers, drug traders and petty criminals. This is not the world
legalization’s proponents envisioned, but it happened."
Jan. 29, 2007 Thomas KleineBrockhoff
The US Department of State, wrote in its Nov. 24, 2004 article "The Link Between Prostitution
and Sex Trafficking" provided on its website:
"The U.S. Government adopted a strong position against legalized prostitution in a December 2002
National Security Presidential Directive based on evidence that prostitution is inherently harmful
and dehumanizing, and fuels trafficking in persons, a form of modernday slavery. Prostitution and
related activities—including pimping and patronizing or maintaining brothels—fuel the growth of
modernday slavery by providing a façade behind which traffickers for sexual exploitation operate.
Where prostitution is legalized or tolerated, there is a greater demand for human trafficking victims
and nearly always an increase in the number of women and children trafficked into commercial sex
slavery...
Few activities are as brutal and damaging to people as prostitution. Field research in nine countries
concluded that 6075 percent of women in prostitution were raped, 7095 percent were physically
assaulted, and 68 percent met the criteria for post traumatic stress disorder in the same range as
treatmentseeking combat veterans and victims of stateorganized torture. Beyond this shocking
abuse, the public health implications of prostitution are devastating and include a myriad of serious
and fatal diseases, including HIV/AIDS...
State attempts to regulate prostitution by introducing medical checkups or licenses don’t address
the core problem: the routine abuse and violence that form the prostitution experience and brutally
victimize those caught in its netherworld. Prostitution leaves women and children physically,
mentally, emotionally, and spiritually devastated. Recovery takes years, even decades—often, the
damage can never be undone."
Nov. 24, 2004 US Department of State
Norma Hotaling, Founder and Executive Director of Standing Against Global Exploitation
(SAGE) Project and former prostitute, wrote in her prepared testimony for the Apr. 28, 2005
hearing "Combating Trafficking in Persons: Status Report on Domestic and International
Developments," before the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services
Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology:
"As long as we point the finger away from ourselves, away from the institutions that blame and
criminalize women and children for their own rape, sexual abuse, trafficking and slavery, away
from the men who we normalize as ‘Johns,’ and as long as we disconnect adult prostitution and the
exploitation of children and disconnect prostitution and trafficking in human beings for the
purposes of rape and sex slavery; then we are to blame and we have assisted in creating wellfunded
transnational criminal networks – dollar by dollar."
Apr. 28, 2005 Norma Hotaling
Tony Nassif, Founder and President of the Cedars Cultural and Educational Foundation, wrote
in the July 19, 2006 article "Legalize Prostitution?" provided on the Cedars Cultural and
Educational Foundation website:
"Whether legal or illegal, prostitution doesn't stop the spread of disease and the devastation of the
human soul as well as the disintegration of the culture, society, and nation....
Yet some promote the legalization of prostitution. This movement must be resisted for many reasons,
most notably that it will perpetuate the demand for trafficked victims and the repercussion that
follows.
Then there is God. No matter what our opinion is, it is God's standard that remains. Abide by it and
the nation is blessed. Reject it and we come out from under His blessing of health and prosperity.
We choose. We cannot reject God's precepts for life and prosperity by legalizing that which He
condemns and yet expect His blessings for ourselves and our posterity."
July 19, 2006 Tony Nassif
Bonnie Erbe, Contributing Editor at US News & World Report, wrote in the June 15, 2006 Seattle
PostIntelligencer article "Cry Foul on World Cup Prostitution":
"Germany is one of several European nations where prostitution is legal. Germany came late to this
game, in 2002. In only four years, it built up a work force some 400,000 strong for its multibillion
dollar annual prostitution business...
My admiration for relaxed European attitudes toward sex comes to an excruciatingly cacophonous
halt on the issue of legalized prostitution.
Women'srights activists believe the German government's sanctioning of sex services for World
Cup visitors will drive the illicit international trade in sex trafficking. This, in turn, could force
thousands of unwilling women into prostitution.
Whether women enter the sex trade willingly or not, no government should sanction prostitution. By
its very nature, prostitution is demeaning to women and encourages antisocial, some would say
depraved, behavior by men.
...German officials... should ban prostitution altogether."
June 15, 2006 Bonnie Erbe, JD
Andrea Dworkin, an author, activist, and former prostitute, stated in her Oct. 31, 1992 speech at
the University of Michigan Law School:
"I ask you to think about your own bodiesif you can do so outside the world that the
pornographers have created in your minds, the flat, dead, floating mouths and vaginas and anuses
of women. I ask you to think concretely about your own bodies used that way. How sexy is it? Is it
fun? The people who defend prostitution and pornography want you to feel a kinky little thrill every
time you think of something being stuck in a woman. I want you to feel the delicate tissues in her
body that are being misused. I want you to feel what it feels like when it happens over and over and
over and over and over and over and over again: because that is what prostitution is.
...And so, many of us are saying that prostitution is intrinsically abusive. Let me be clear. I am
talking to you about prostitution per se, without more violence, without extra violence, without a
woman being hit, without a woman being pushed. Prostitution in and of itself is an abuse of a
woman's body. Those of us who say this are accused of being simpleminded. But prostitution is very
simple. And if you are not simpleminded, you will never understand it. The more complex you
manage to be, the further away from the reality you will bethe safer you will be, the happier you
will be, the more fun you will have discussing the issue of prostitution. In prostitution, no woman
stays whole."
Oct. 31, 1992 Andrea Dworkin
Anastasia Volkonsky, JD, former Executive Director, Colorado Lawyers for the Arts (CoLA),
wrote in the Feb. 27, 1995 Insight on the News article "Legalizing the 'Profession' Would
Sanction the Abuse":
"Behind the facade of a regulated industry, brothel prostitutes in Nevada are captive in conditions
analogous to slavery. Women often are procured for the brothels from other areas by pimps who
dump them at the house in order to collect the referral fee. Women report working in shifts
commonly as long as 12 hours, even when ill, menstruating or pregnant, with no right to refuse a
customer who has requested them or to refuse the sexual act for which he has paid. The dozen or so
prostitutes I interviewed said they are expected to pay the brothel room and board and a percentage
of their earnings sometimes up to 50 percent. They also must pay for mandatory extras such as
medical exams, assigned clothing and fines incurred for breaking house rules. And, contrary to the
common claim that the brothel will protect women from the dangerous, crazy clients on the streets,
rapes and assaults by customers are covered up by the management."
Feb. 27, 1995 Anastasia Volkonsky, JD
Gunilla Ekberg, Special Adviser to the Swedish Division for Gender Equality in the Ministry of
Industry, Employment, and Communications, wrote in the article "The Swedish Law That
Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services: Best Practices for Prevention of Prostitution and
Trafficking in Human Beings" published in the Oct. 2004 issue of Violence Against Women:
"In Sweden, prostitution is officially acknowledged as a form of male sexual violence against
women and children. One of the cornerstones of Swedish policies against prostitution and
trafficking in human beings is the focus on the root cause, the recognition that without men’s
demand for and use of women and girls for sexual exploitation, the global prostitution industry
would not be able flourish and expand.
Prostitution is a serious problem that is harmful, in particular, not only to the prostituted woman or
child but also to society at large. Therefore, prostituted women and children are seen as victims of
male violence who do not risk legal penalties. Instead, they have a right to assistance to escape
prostitution."
Oct. 2004 Gunilla Ekberg
Michael Horowitz, LLB, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, in the article "Right
Abolitionism" published in the Dec. 2005 Jan. 2006 issue of The American Spectator:
"...Historians will also note the attacks on the Bush administration and Miller [Ambassador John
R. Miller] from a shrill claque of academic feminists and their radical chic allies and by doing so
these historians will understand the reasons for the declining state of the 21stcentury American
left. They will see in the critics' attacks liberal utopianism at its worst the belief that until all
poverty and all exploitation of the weak has ended, targeted efforts 'merely' to ameliorate such
'symptoms' as the mafiaconducted destruction of millions of girls and women in the sex trade are
distractions from the need to eliminate 'root causes.' Historians will see in these attacks rhetoric and
ideology unhinged from reality, a worship of materialist goals, contempt for traditional values, and
a moral stinginess that denies credit for good work to any but political allies.
...The critics endorse the big lie of Pretty Woman and act as if the Julia Roberts character exists
beyond Hollywood. The critics routinely seek 'sex worker unions,' governmenttrafficker condom
distribution partnerships, and government regulation as if written contracts or OSHA [US
Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration]mandated ergonomic
mattresses could ever trump the ability of pimps to exploit the abused and psychologically
manipulable runaway girls they prey upon."
Dec. 2005 Jan. 2006 Michael Horowitz, LLB
Theodore Dalrymple, a writer and retired physician, wrote in the Feb. 3, 2005 City Journal
article "WelfaretoWork's New Thrust":
"A few years ago, prostitutes disappeared from the pages of medical journals; they returned as 'sex
workers.' Nor did they work in prostitution any more: they were employees in the 'sex industry.'
Presumably, orgasms are now a consumer product just like any other. As for pimps, the correct term
is probably: 'brief sexual liaison coordinators.'
The editors who decided on the new terminology almost certainly felt, and probably still do feel, a
warm glow of selfsatisfaction (one of the few emotions than never lets you down). How they must
have prided themselves on their broadmindedness, as they strove to reduce the smallminded stigma
traditionally attached to offering sexual services in return for money! How morally brave and
daring they must have felt, to fly so boldly in the face of two millennia of unthinking condemnation!
...The idea of the state coercing its population into prostitution is, of course, repellent. Even the most
liberal of liberals would probably agree with that. This means that there is after all a moral
difference between prostitution and washing dishes in the local restaurant or stacking supermarket
shelves. And that prostitution is both ageold and ineradicable does not make it any less degrading
to all concerned."
Feb. 3, 2005 Theodore Dalrymple
Charles H. Ramsey, former Police Chief of Washington, DC, stated in the May 11, 1999 interview
"Q&A with Charles H. Ramsey" on Levey Live (a weekly live online discussion) on Washington
Post with Bob Levey:
"I believe that two crimes make a city look totally out of control. That's open prostitution and open
air drug trafficking. I was appalled at the blatant prostitution taking place in the District and I have
been determined to put an end to it. You're right that often times a problem is simply displaced when
strong enforcement action is taken, that's to be expected, actually. The key is to shift resources to the
new location and continue to take strong enforcement action wherever the problem crops up.
Eventually, people engaged in this kind of activity either stop or leave the area altogether."
May 11, 1999 Charles H. Ramsey
Jeffrey J. Barrows, DO, Health Consultant on Human Trafficking for the Christian Medical
Association, wrote in the Sep. 9, 2005 article "HIV and Prostitution: What's the Answer?"
published on the Center for Bioethics Human Dignity website:
"Even if a prostitute is being tested every week for HIV, she will test negative for at least the first 46
weeks and possibly the first 12 weeks after being infected. If we assume that he or she takes only 4
weeks to become positive, because there is an additional lag time of 12 weeks to get the results back,
there will be at best a window period of 6 weeks for a prostitute. The average prostitute services
between 1015 clients per day. This means that while the test is becoming positive and the results are
becoming known, that prostitute may expose up to 630 clients to HIV. This is under the best of
circumstances with testing every week and a fourweek window period. It also assumes that the
prostitute will quit working as soon as he or she finds out the test is HIV positive, which is highly
unlikely. This is not the best approach for actually reducing harm. Instead, in order to slow the
global spread of HIV/AIDS we should focus our efforts on abolishing prostitution."
Sep. 9, 2005 Jeffrey J. Barrows, DO
Lisa Thompson, Liaison for the Abolition of Sexual Trafficking for the United States Salvation
Army, stated in her Jan. 26, 2007 phone interview with ProCon.org:
"We need to eliminate the purchase of commercial sex. That is no easy task. People tell me all the
time that prostitution has been around forever and you can't stop this. I think that's baloney. There
are a lot of things that have been around forever but if we provide the right evidence and provide
positive motivation and use our laws effectively people's behaviors can change and we can change
people's minds…
I'm opposed to anything that would legalize the purchasing of sex by buyers. I'm opposed to
pimping being legal. I'm opposed to brothel keeping being legal. I think we need to absolutely keep
as many barriers up as possible. We want to create a sense that buying sex from a woman is socially
unacceptable and legally unacceptable…
Prostitution is a despairing, horrible condition for any women and girl who should end up there. We
need to get more and better information out to the public about the harms of prostitution: mortality,
homicide, suicide, sexually transmitted diseases, violence, beatings, shootings, stabbings, rape… It is
no life for anyone."
Jan. 26, 2007 Lisa Thompson
Joseph Parker, Clinical Director of the Lola Greene Baldwin Foundation, wrote in the article
"How Prostitution Works" posted on the Lola Greene Baldwin Foundation website (accessed
Jan. 19, 2009):
"People who have had luckier lives, as well as those who profit from the sex industry in some way,
frequently refer to prostitution and pornography as 'victimless crimes'. They point to a tiny fraction
of sex workers who actually might be involved by choice. They selectively read history to find some
tiny minority, somewhere, at some time, who gained something in the sex business.
The very selectiveness of their attention indicates that, on some level, they know that for almost
everyone, involvement in the sex industry is a terrible misfortune.
As many an old cop will say, 'Anyone who thinks prostitution is a victimless crime, hasn’t seen it up
close.'"
Jan. 19, 2009 Joseph Parker
S.M. Berg, CoFounder of the Sexual Health Activist Group (SHAG), wrote in the article "Hey,
Progressives! Cathouse Got Your Tongue?" in the July 2006 Portland Alliance:
"Instead of railing against the increasing exploitation of females internationally, mainstream
American feminists have mostly chosen to ignore the severe and tragic harms of prostitution. Why
the wall of silence regarding men’s legitimized sense of entitlement to demand sex anytime, any way
they want it, from mostly minority and povertystricken women?
...Rejecting prostitution is consistent with the feminist belief that men do not have a right to control
women’s sexuality ever, but too many feminist women still can't say so while standing tall and
without apologizing for believing it."
July 2006 S.M. Berg
Mary Anne Layden, PhD, CoDirector of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at
the Center for Cognitive Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania, was quoted as having stated
in the Aug. 10, 2005 The Australian article "Porn Fuels Prostitution":
"Internet pornography and the legalisation of prostitution have driven up demand through a set of
beliefs that imply that this behaviour is normal, acceptable, common and doesn't hurt anyone so the
person has permission to continue to behave in that way...
There are not enough women in Australia who have been raped as a child, are homeless, or have a
drug addiction, to be prostitutes, because in reality these are the women who end up in this situation.
In this case, you have to deceive or kidnap women and children from other countries, take their
passport, beat them up and put them into sex slavery."
Aug. 10, 2005 Mary Anne Layden, PhD
John Paul, II, 264th Pope of the Catholic Apostolic Roman Church, stated in his June 29, 1995
"Letter to Women" provided on www.vatican.va:
"Nor can we fail, in the name of the respect due to the human person, to condemn the widespread
hedonistic and commercial culture which encourages the systematic exploitation of sexuality and
corrupts even very young girls into letting their bodies be used for profit."
June 29, 1995 John Paul, II
In US v. Bitty (decided Feb. 24, 1908), the US Supreme Court, in a decision written by then
Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan:
"There can be no doubt as to what class was aimed at by the clause forbidding the importation of
alien women for purposes of 'prostitution.' It refers to women who, for hire or without hire, offer
their bodies to indiscriminate intercourse with men. The lives and example of such persons are in
hostility to 'the idea of the family as consisting in and springing from the union for life of one man
and one woman in the holy estate of matrimony; the sure foundation of all that is stable and noble
in our civilization; the best guaranty of that reverent morality which is the source of all beneficent
progress in social and political improvement.'"
Feb. 24, 1908 U.S. v. Bitty (12 KB)
Melissa Farley, PhD, Founding Director of the Prostitution Research and Education, wrote in the
article "Bad for the Body, Bad for the Heart" published in the Oct. 2004 Violence Against
Women:
"Legal sex businesses provide locations where sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, and violence
against women are perpetrated with impunity. Statesponsored prostitution endangers all women
and children in that acts of sexual predation are normalized — acts ranging from the seemingly
banal (breast massage) to the lethal (snuff prostitution that includes filming of actual murders of
real women and children)...
Johns who buy women, groups promoting legalized prostitution, and governments that support
statesponsored sex industries comprise a tripartite partnership that endangers all women. These
groups collude in denying the everyday violence and subsequent health dangers to those in
prostitution."
Oct. 2004 Melissa Farley, PhD
Dave Quist, MPA, Executive Director of the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC),
was quoted as having stated in the July 13, 2006 LifeSiteNews.com article "National Post
Advocating Legalization of Prostitution Again":
"The concept that 'mom's job' is having sex with strangers sets the wrong tone for family life. It
hurts the woman, it hurts the children; that is an exploitative situation. If prostitution is legal it
affords men the 'excuse' to go find sex outside of marriage, when things in the marriage are
difficult. That does nothing to enhance the relationship between a man and a woman.
[Prostitution] runs opposite to what relationships are supposed to be. Intimacy and love are not
involved; it's just a purely physical act. It lowers both people to the lowest common denominator."
July 13, 2006 Dave Quist
Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States and interviewed as former Governor of
California (Jan. 1967Jan. 1975) at the time of the quotation, was quoted as having stated in the
July 1975 Reason Magazine article "Inside Ronald Reagan":
"Prostitution has been listed as a nonvictim crime. Well, is anyone naive enough to believe that
prostitution just depends on willing employees coming in and saying that's the occupation they want
to practice? It doesn't.
...Talk to law enforcement people about the seamy side of how the recruiting is done, including what
in an earlier day was called the white slave traffic and you will find that the recruiting for
prostitution is not one of just taking an ad in the paper and saying come be a prostitute and letting
someone walk in willingly."