Trenton Congressman Chris Smith authored and championed the first anti-trafficking legislation.
As per the U.S. State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report 2007, “[Human trafficking] deprives people of their human rights and freedoms, it increases global health risks, and it fuels the growth of organized crime... [Each year,] approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders, which does not include millions trafficked within their own countries. Approximately 80 percent of transnational victims are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors. The majority of transnational victims are females trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation.”
Tom Cruise once assured us that prostitution wasn't all that bad with “Risky Business.” Richard Gere and Julia Roberts did a similar favor with “Pretty Woman.” With “Mighty Aphrodite,” Woody Allen showed prostitution to be good for a few laughs. Men who made fortunes publishing pornography, such as Larry Flynt and Hugh Heffner, are treated as wise elder statesmen by the media. Society seems invested in the notion that commercial sex is — if not benign — at least victimless.
As per Joe Parker, RN, “People used in the sex industry often need medical care as a result of the ever-present violence. They may need treatment for infectious diseases, including AIDS. Survivors frequently need mental health care for post-traumatic stress disorder, psychotic episodes and suicide attempts. About a third end up chronically disabled and on Social Security. The sex trade plays an active role in promoting alcohol and drug problems... As many an old cop will say, "Anyone who thinks prostitution is a victimless crime, hasn't seen it up close.' ”
Last year, New York's governor signed an anti-trafficking law, which raised patronizing prostitution to a Class A misdemeanor. As per Nicholas Kristoff of the New York Times, “The big worry now among those working to stop trafficking is that the Spitzer scandal will add to perceptions of prostitution as a "victimless crime.' ” In response to those who say that “Prostitution is inevitable, so we might as well legalize and regulate it,” Kristoff cites the Netherlands: “legalization nurtured a large sex industry and criminal gangs that trafficked underage girls, and so trafficking, violence and child prostitution flourished rather than dying out.”
How could a man who attacked prostitution show such hypocrisy? Certainly, each of us falls short. Yet, it is telling to look at the core attitudes of Wilberforce, Smith, and Spitzer. Wilberforce and Smith shared/share a passionate belief in the sanctity of each and every human life. Smith is co-chair of the Pro Life Caucus in the House of Representatives. As per a December 2005 piece in New York Magazine, “one of every ten abortions occurs in New York... New York is the abortion capital of America.” Not satisfied, Eliot Spitzer was championing the so-called “Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act,” which aimed to even further liberalize New York's abortion laws.
In the current International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, researchers explore one relationship between abortion and attitudes toward sex. After a wife or girlfriend has an abortion, researchers Coleman, Rue, Spence, and Coyle found men to have more casual attitudes about multiple partners and sex with strangers. Other research questions are begging to be asked. For example, are middle aged men who exploit young women more likely to support abortion? Are middle aged men who support abortion more likely to exploit young women?
According to the research wing of Planned Parenthood, the average cost of an abortion in 2001 was $468. According to the USDA's Expenditures on Children by Families 2006, annual expenses on a child could now be expected to range from $8,060 to $16,750 (Not even a drop in the bucket compared to what that child's eventual college expenses will be!). Are men who engage in casual sex more likely to support abortion, keeping open an “escape hatch” from an “inconvenient pregnancy” and parental responsibilities?
Unless built on a foundation of respect for all human life, anti-trafficking measures seem doomed to flounder.
