Warren: 'I'm open' to decriminalizing sex work

Authored by eu.usatoday.com and submitted by Brrrritos

Warren: 'I'm open' to decriminalizing sex work

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., announced this week that she is "open" to decriminalizing sex work.

"I'm open to decriminalization. Sex workers, like all workers, deserve autonomy but they are particularly vulnerable to physical and financial abuse and hardship," Warren, who is running for president, said in a statement Wednesday to the Washington Post.

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Warren is the latest Democrat to take a stance on decriminalizing sex work. Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif, and Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Reps. Tulsi Gabbard and Seth Moulton, have all said they would decriminalize sex work, according to BuzzFeed. Sen. Bernie Sanders in a statement to the Washington Post also said that "decriminalization is certainly something that should be considered."

Several state legislatures have also brought up bills involving sex work, with New York being the latest to consider making it legal to engage in the consensual sale of sex.

But, Warren's position would seem to be somewhat at odds with her prior support of federal anti-trafficking legislation.

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Last year, Congress passed two anti-trafficking bills, Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), which became law.

Warren previously voted for FOSTA, which bans websites used by sex workers to screen clients. In addition, she also introduced bipartisan legislation with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., that would pressure banks to shut down accounts suspected of engaging in trafficking, HuffPost reported.

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And the Massachusetts Democrat warned that she doesn't want to undermine legal protections for those who have suffered from sex trafficking.

"We need to make sure we don't undermine legal protections for the most vulnerable, including the millions of individuals who are victims of human trafficking each year," she also told the Post.

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-desdinova- on June 23rd, 2019 at 18:30 UTC »

It's worth mentioning that there is no federal law against prostitution. It's up to the states to decide, although it's only legal in Nevada. The president would have little influence over whether it becomes legal or not.

ThatOtherGuy_CA on June 23rd, 2019 at 17:20 UTC »

Fun fact, you can spend 5-15 years in prison for coming to a perfectly safe exchange of good for a service (money for sex). But if you film it and agree with the other party to sell it online it’s all the sudden perfectly legal.

In Canada they legalized the selling of sex, but purchasing sex is still criminalized. They found that it’s actually had more of a negative effect on sex workers, as now all of the risk in on their clients, so their clients are putting more pressure on sex workers to work for less, or to practice unsafe sex. Or even raping and robbing sex workers because they can justify meeting the sexworkers in more obscure locations to “protect their identities” as the clients are the only one who will get in trouble. They also found that sexworkers are now more uncomfortable seeking help or healthcare for STDs because the police are pressuring them to rat out their clients (which defeats the purpose of making sex work legal to sell if you are being forced to burn your client list).

Meanwhile it’s been legal in New Zealand since 2003 and they’ve found a serious reduction is STDs and violence against sex workers because they can legally establish a safe work environment and have a regulated industry where they can feel safe to report violent clients, and their clients can no longer make extreme demands since they are no longer limited to being forced to find people willing to break the law to pay for their services.

Just fucking legalize and regulate prostitution already.

dolomiten on June 23rd, 2019 at 15:05 UTC »

Decriminalising sex work seems like a no brainer to me from the few things I’ve read about it. Sex work is going to continue to exist and at the very least decriminalising it allows people working in the industry to get protections they desperately need. Personally, I think sex work should be legalised and unionised.