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Abolition of Prostitution
by
Lisa Thompson
For nearly
eight years, I have worked on behalf of The Salvation Army for
the eradication of sexual trafficking and the demise of the
sex industry, while simultaneously championing the cause of
prostituted and sexually trafficked persons. Thus, when I read
a recent Salvation Army publication article, “Work or
Sexploitation?” I was greatly disappointed. Why? Because, I
believe that the average person who reads this article, as
well as this issue’s editorial, could reasonably conclude that
people who oppose the commercial sex industry are at best
naïve and ill-informed, or at worst on a “moralistic” crusade
which seeks at any cost to rescue fallen women from their
supposed moral poverty. Since some who have read this article
may have come to such impressions, I offer the following
response. The views articulated here are rooted in what is
frequently identified as an Abolitionist perspective on
prostitution. In short, Abolitionists seek the abolition of
the commercial sex industry.
It is my view
that to the extent the church has discussed the issue of
prostitution, for too long it has done so from the margins,
and treated it with flippant clichés and conventional wisdom.
Thus, this in-depth review will respond to several matters
raised in the aforementioned article by covering the subjects
of systems of exploitation, morality, limitations on rights,
biblical perspectives, the terminology used to discuss
prostitution, the “choice” debate, harm reduction, as well as
the actual physical, psychological, and spiritual harms of
prostitution.
From the
outset, I would like to clarify that I fully realize deeply
committed Christians may have radically different perspectives
on the subject of prostitution. Sometimes it is hard for us to
accept or understand how our Christian brothers and sisters
come to the positions they hold. I sit at lunch everyday with
wonderful Christian people and often I leave the table
wondering how it is that some of us can view things one way,
and others see them in just the opposite. There is certainly
some mystery in how God works in our hearts. None of us
possesses perfect insight into what God is doing, and His
plans and purposes. Nevertheless, I believe there is truth to
be found if we relentlessly seek it in God’s word, the example
of Christ, through prayer, and through study. Accordingly,
based on my best but admittedly limited understanding, the
following sets forth why I, for one, cannot accept the views
on prostitution postulated in that article.
Systems of
Exploitation
In the
articles, at least one message that comes through is that to
oppose the commercial sex industry is to cast judgment on
those who prostitute. However, denouncing systems of injustice
and exploitation is different from reviling the people caught
within that system. When the South African government
abolished Apartheid, did that action implicitly insult the
black people, which that system had oppressed? When The
Salvation Army launches anti-poverty initiatives, does the
public or the Church conclude that we are disparaging and
judging the poor? I think not. Sadly though, when it comes to
organized sexual exploitation some people fail to recognize
the important distinction that speaking out about systems of
exploitation (i.e. the commercial sex industry at large) does
not equal disparaging its victims (e.g. the prostituted).
Let me be
clear: I love the women, children, and men caught up in the
sex industry. I believe we should offer them mercy, respect,
and every assistance we possibly can, that may in time, lead
them out of “the life” and to transformation through the hope
and love of Jesus Christ. On the flip side of this love is an
intense hatred for the industry that sucks them in, uses them
up, and then tosses them aside whenever it has finished
draining every last bit of hope and humanity out of them. Does
that mean I hate the sex buyers or the sex industrialists that
keep the sex industry engines running? No. I know that the
love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness of Christ extend to
them as well. However, I am thoroughly committed to opposing
them, and to tearing down the system they have constructed,
which if left unchecked, will suck in and destroy future
legions of women, children, and men.
In many parts
of the world, that system is constructed on the foundation of
legalized prostitution. These legal regimes have their
variations from country to country, but generally they not
only decriminalize prostitution for those prostituting (which
in most contexts I support), but also normalize men’s
solicitation of sex, brothel keeping, and third party
management of the procurement of sexual services. Such systems
remove any social mores which contextualize commercial sex
exchanges as deviant behavior, and smooth the path to
prostitution for both the purchaser and the purchased.
Moreover, they create as a matter of law a pool of women that
men may access at their whim for their sexual gratification.
This is appalling.
It is my belief
that organizations working to reduce the effects of systems of
exploitation should have an organizational philosophy that
views those same systems as innately harmful. It would be
shocking if organizations working to abate poverty, AIDS,
gambling or smoking did not actually believe that these
phenomena were destructive, or did not speak out about
conditions causing or exacerbating their effects. Yet, if one
maintains that practices as plainly dehumanizing and injurious
as prostitution constitute a system of oppression, watch
out—you are likely to be characterized as “moralistic.”
Morality
Morality and
morals are words that do not alarm me. Consider these
definitions from The American Heritage Dictionary:
Moral
— “Of or concerned with the judgment of the goodness or
badness of human action and character.”
Morals
—“Rules or habits of conduct, especially sexual conduct, with
reference to standards of right and wrong.”
Several of my
usual arguments about the commercial sex industry maintain
that:
1.
prostitution
constitutes a system that is inherently harmful to those it
uses as instruments for someone else’s sexual pleasure; that
2.
the
commodification of sex robs the sex of human relations of all
its humanity—love, intimacy, mutual fulfillment, concern for
the “other”—and replaces these attributes with callous
disregard for the other, selfishness, heartlessness, violence,
and brutality; that
3.
any society
which codifies men’s sexual access to women on demand is
grossly unjust; that
4.
in the 21st
Century the civilized world should be offering better
“choices” to women than the opportunity to lie on their backs
as a means of “employment”; and that
5.
a loving God
designed and purposed no woman to provide her body to
be groped, consumed, and violated by countless men;
If such
arguments make one moralistic, then so be it. I will happily
be moralistic until the day I die. Surely, you too can see the
“wrongness” in countless millions of women being served up for
the lust and profit of others. If you do, then welcome to the
“moralistic” club.
According to
this article, The Salvation Army should table its morals when
it comes to discussions on prostitution. However, if The
Salvation Army is to absence itself from making moral
judgments, then the entire mission of social justice is lost.
In speaking out about other social injustices, The Salvation
Army is most certainly making statements imbued with morality.
Should those statements be made only when the ground is safe?
Few people in the world object to those who speak out about
poverty, or for the need for clean water, and a safer
environment. A cynic could conclude that perhaps some in The
Salvation Army are only comfortable taking moral positions
when they point in the same direction as the prevailing winds
of public opinion.
Indeed, do not
most people respect the Salvation Army because of its morality
and decency, not its lack thereof? In matters of morality,
shying away from moral stances is not the answer. What is
important is how we frame and communicate the moral message.
Those messages should not be delivered with Bible-thumping,
hyperbolic vitriol, but with a gentle firmness that
respectfully speaks truth to power and shines light in the
darkness.
Limitations
on Rights
Another
assertion in the article is that “people have every right to
use their bodies as they will.” Do we seriously believe
this—that people can do entirely as they wish with their
bodies? If a suicide bomber who had an explosive pack on his
back locked himself in a classroom full of children, I imagine
most would argue that the bomber does not have a right to do
as he pleases with his body. What about rapists or murderers?
We would never argue that they have the right to use their
bodies as instruments of sexual assault, terror, and death.
Yet, that is what men who purchase sex do on a routine basis.
Because they make a payment, such men falsely believe that
they are entitled to do as they please sexually to another
person’s body.
There is not an
absolute right to use our bodies indiscriminately. Society
recognizes this fact, and has made moral judgments
about how we can, and cannot use our bodies, by establishing
laws against such things as rape, murder, driving while drunk,
public nudity, and even smoking in public places. Why then,
should society not maintain laws that protect people from
other sexual abuses, such as men’s purchase of sexual access
to women’s bodies?
Perhaps now
some of you are thinking something like, “Well, as long as the
use of a person’s body doesn’t hurt another person, then one
can use their body as they wish.” There are two important
considerations concerning this point. First, prostitution is
anything but harmless. It certainly is not harmless to the
countless numbers of women and children used as sex industry
merchandise. Nor is it harmless to the men who use
prostitutes, or to the wives and children of men who engage in
commercial sex activities. I will deal with prostitution harms
in some detail later in this piece.
Additionally,
as Christians, our opinions and perspectives are not only
informed by worldly considerations. As Danielle Strickland and
Campbell Roberts wrote in the spring 2009 issue of Caring,
“Any social reformer would consider the context and analyze
what is going on, but engaging the sacred story is a point of
difference for the prophets (people) of God—those who would
act with social justice from within the Christian tradition .
. . Christians are required to engage the God perspective,
primarily obtained from understanding and studying the Bible.
That biblical consideration is further enhanced by prayer and
its consideration with a context of worship . . . .”
Biblical
Considerations
Given that our
subject is prostitution, I suggest that the biblical
considerations we should take into account include, at a
minimum, these themes:
-
God gives
dignity to all human life. All life is created by God and
stamped with His image
(Genesis 1:27).
-
The body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit. Sexual immorality desecrates
this temple.
(1 Corinthians 6:15-20).
-
Prostitution
is degrading and leads to corruption of society (Leviticus
19:29).
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God calls us
to lives of sexual integrity and holiness (1 Thessalonians
4:3-8).
-
God is a God
of justice who hates injustice (Psalm 82:2-4; Isaiah 58:6;
Micah 6:8)
-
At the heart
of Christ’s earthly message was hope for new life for every
man, woman, and child
(2 Corinthians 5:16-20).
-
Christ
displayed mercy and compassion to women with questionable
sexual histories, without condoning sexual sin. (John
4:1-1-25; John 8:1-11).
Taking these
scriptures into account, surely then we cannot argue that
humanity is free to do with our bodies as we please. God has
imparted his holy imprint on us all, the body is made in his
image, and He has called us to lives of sexual holiness. Thus,
I truly marvel at how the Church can give even a moment’s
consideration to supporting social systems, such as
legalization of prostitution, that are destructive to the
God-given dignity of the body, that codify sexual corruption,
and sacrifice hordes of women on the alter of expediency,
lust, and greed.
Of course, the
world does not subscribe to this ideology. I would never
expect it to. Yet, by simply accommodating the worldly view,
we offer no godly alternative, no light and no salt.
Prostitution
Terminology
Moreover, in
view of this biblical framework, I also marvel at our adoption
of the language of “sex work.” As with other contentious
issues (e.g. abortion), the terms used to discuss prostitution
are matters of debate. At first blush, disputes about
terminology may seem trivial. However, the writers of a
curriculum for supporting trauma survivors provide this
important insight into the significance of terminology: “Words
are powerful. They define the limits or boundaries around
ideas, beliefs, and interactions. The way you talk about
something becomes the way you think about it, just as the way
you identify someone becomes the way you think about that
person” (Day, et al., 2006, p. 17). Indeed, matters of
boundaries, as well as of the identity of those involved in
prostitution, are intrinsic to the debate concerning
prostitution lexicon.
In part,
pro-sex work advocates use the term “sex work” to normalize
prostitution and portray prostitution as just another
profession, thus widening the boundaries of prostitution from
the criminal and/or aberrant to the everyday and conventional.
Conversely, Abolitionists reject the term on those very
grounds, and because they view prostitution as inherently
exploitative, not as work. According to the Abolitionist
perspective, the term “sex work” obscures the realities of the
conditions within the sex trade, such as rape, assaults, and
sexually transmitted infections, by treating them as work
hazards and casting prostitution as an occupation like any
other—one as equal in nature to that of teacher, social
worker, lawyer, or doctor.
Both camps
agree that the term “prostitute” pejoratively labels those in
prostitution, and that this labeling increases the stigma
attached to such individuals. Trauma experts explain how such
labeling is indeed hurtful: “Reducing the essence of a
person’s identity to a label is dehumanizing and alienating.
No one word or role can encompass our true identity, but a
word can easily eclipse our true identity” (Day, et al., 2006,
p. 19).
Therefore,
pro-sex work advocates also promote the term “sex worker”
because in their view it de-stigmatizes the role of
prostitute. Abolitionists, however, promote using terms such
as “prostituted women” or “prostituting women/persons” because
these terms do not portray prostitution as normative and yet
communicate prostitution as an experience, not a state of
being.
Surely, the
Abolitionists have it right. Are not people in prostitution
just that: people? And too, just because the public officials
of Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia (to
mention a few) have decide to bestow upon prostitution the
status of work, does that really make it so? Since when did
God sanction sex as a job, or bless sex for remuneration?
If, at this
point, anyone is still on the fence about whether prostitution
is a job, read this “Help Wanted” ad and ask yourself if you
would want this job.
Help
Wanted: Women and Girls Do YOU want this job?
Copyright © WHISPER.
Prostitution has been euphemized as an
occupational alternative for women, as an answer to
low-paying, low skilled, boring dead-end jobs, as a solution
to the high unemployment rate of poor women, as a form of
sexual liberation, and a career women freely choose.
Are you tired of mindless, low skilled,
low-paying jobs? Would you like a career with flexible hours?
Working with people? Offering a professional service?
Women and girls applying for this position
will provide the following services:
-
Being penetrated orally, anally, and vaginally with penises,
fingers, fists, and objects, including but not limited to,
bottles, brushes, dildoes, guns and/or animals;
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Being bound and gagged, tied with ropes and/or chains,
burned with cigarettes, or hung from beams or trees;
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Being photographed or filmed performing these acts.
Workplace:
Job-related activities will be performed in the
following locations: in an apartment, a hotel, a "massage
parlor," car, doorway, hallway, street, executive suite,
fraternity house, convention, bar, public toilet, public park,
alleyway, military base, on a stage, in a glass booth.
Wages:
Wages will be negotiated at each and every
transaction. Payment will be delivered when client determines
when and if services have been rendered to his satisfaction.
Corporate management fees range from 40-60% of
wages; private manager reserves the right to impound all
monies earned.
Benefits:
Benefits will be provided at the discretion of
management.
NO RESPONSIBILITY OR LEGAL REDRESS FOR THE
FOLLOWING ON-THE-JOB HAZARDS:
-
Nonpayment for services rendered;
-
Sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy;
-
Injuries sustained through performance of services including
but not limited to cuts, bruises, lacerations, internal
hemorrhaging, broken bones, suffocation, mutilation,
disfigurement, dismemberment, and death.
Note: Accusations of rape will be treated as
a breach of contract by employee.
Name of applicant:
________________________________
Signature of manager on behalf of applicant:
______________________________
This is the
blunt and ugly truth about what the realities of prostitution
entail. How then can we wish prostituting persons “fulfilling
lives” in prostitution as the article suggests? Is not the
point that prostitution robs people of the opportunity to be
truly fulfilled?
So I repeat, if
we believe God has imparted his holy imprint on us all, that
the body is made in his image, and He has called us to lives
of sexual holiness, how can we possibly adopt the language of
sex work? It is one thing to talk to people in prostitution in
the terms with which they are familiar and self-identify, but
it is quite another to, in public discourse, accept this
normalization of sex as a job. If sex is work, then we should
have no problem with our own mothers, daughters, sisters,
nieces, and female friends being involved in the trade. What,
you do not want them selling their bodies? In that
case, if “sex work” is not good enough for the women in your
life, then why should it be the fate of other women and girls
(as well as boys and men)?
“Choice”
Debate
Now, I come to
the debate concerning “choice” or the so-called consent of
women in prostitution. As is typical with most discussions of
prostitution, the article has framed the question of free will
completely backwards by focusing on the choices of women who
prostitute. Prostitution is a manifestation of men’s
choices and the male demand that women’s bodies be
traded as commodities. Ultimately, it is the man’s free will
to seek his sexual gratification at the expense of others that
creates the demand for sex on which the entire sex industry
hinges. At the heart of the matter, is the man’s free will to
use his body as an instrument of sexual harassment, power, and
terror.
Most of
humanity lives in social environments permeated by men’s
demand for a sub-class of women who exist for the purpose of
fulfilling men’s sexual wants whether via prostitution or
pornography. It is little wonder then that some women
acquiesce to this cultural pressure by either joining in
oppression as traffickers, pimps, madams, etc., or by
attempting to harness their sexuality for survival or in
fruitless efforts to obtain power over men. Thus, to
Abolitionists the central issue is not women’s choices per se,
but the fact that those choices are conditioned and
contextualized by the oppressive conditions of male dominance
in which women live.
Commercial sex
harms both women as a class and women as individuals since the
harmful effects of an experience are not mitigated by the fact
that an individual may or may not have chosen the experience.
Whisnant (2004) explains:
Harm is
different. It is an objective condition, not a way of feeling;
to be harmed is to have one’s interests set back, to be made
worse off, to have one’s circumstances made worse than they
were or than they would be in the absence of the thing that’s
doing the harm. Whether a person is harmed or not does not
depend on how she feels . . . . That something is chosen or
consensual is perfectly consistent with its being seriously
oppressive, abusive, and harmful—to oneself and/or to a
broader group of which one is a member (e.g. women). (p.
22-23)
Irrespective of
the degree to which a woman may be exercising her autonomy in
choosing to prostitute, we know it is a harmful choice. Why
should society make it easier for women to make such choices
by decriminalizing all aspects of prostitution—specifically I
mean the demand? Society has taken preventative action against
other choices that otherwise could be left to people to make
on their own. The mandatory use of child safety seats in motor
vehicles, the enforcement of safety belt use during flights,
even the banning of transfats in commercial cooking are
examples of how some societies promote right choices and the
public good. Yet, when it comes to commercial sex, it is as if
all reason and restraint goes out the window.
In addition,
for many women—especially the minority and impoverished women
of the developing world—to the extent that prostitution
reflects their choices, it reflects their desperation. In
their shoes, we very likely would make the same choices. What
is tragic about this situation is that the world seems
completely comfortable with this state of affairs. Where is
the justice in the fact that the sex industries of the world
are comprised largely of poor, minority, uneducated mothers
and even children? How can we without duplicity in our hearts
pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is
in heaven,” while accepting the sex trade as some sort of
legal right, cultural inevitability or a fall back position
for the desolate?
William Booth
observed, “If a man is drowning, you throw him a rope. Argue
how he came to be in such a precarious position and it will be
too late to save him.” In other words, at a deep level the
choices of women who prostitute are beside the point. Too many
people are arguing about whether she waded into the water or
jumped. From this perspective, in either case, she made the
choice. So, if she wants to be in the water, why even bother
throwing in the rope? Indeed, we can even wax poetically about
how empowered she was by going into the water in the first
place.
In the
meanwhile, legalized prostitution and male demand for
prostitution will throw more and more women into the
treacherous waters where most will be sucked into the undertow
and drown under the weight of the commercial sex industry’s
harmful effects. To me it seems only logical that the Church
in general, and The Salvation Army in particular, would have
an interest in seeking to stop whatever forces might be
pitching people into the deep. However, if neither can be
persuaded of the ill effects of legalization and normalizing
male demand for commercial sex, irrespective of whether
prostituting persons waded, jumped, or were hurled into the
waters, we should be about the business of offering these
people true restoration.
Harm
Reduction
Now we arrive
at the subject of harm reduction. First, I should clarify that
I am not opposed to harm reduction efforts across the board.
No one among us wants prostituting persons to experience the
violence and disease that go hand-in-hand with the sex trade.
Obviously we cannot force anyone in the sex trade to leave
that life, no matter how harmed they may be by it. I do not
know any Abolitionists who would suggest otherwise. What I
take issue with are harm reduction efforts that do not take
into account the totality of harms experienced by prostituting
persons, and which simply accommodate a person’s continuation
in a harmful lifestyle without offering spiritual succor and
the promise of assistance to exit the trade when they are
emotionally able to begin that journey.
The brothel
chaplaincy model being developed by Captain Danielle
Strickland and Fona Ling, as well as the “cupcake” ministry of
Jan Permezel are the tender shoots of new ministries that
extend the promise of true friendship and spiritual support so
essential to helping people successfully exit the sex trade.
More than condoms and hygiene kits alone, such
relationship-based ministries offer not only love and respect
to persons in the sex trade, but plow the ground of hardened
hope so that prostituting persons can begin to dream again for
another way of living. Through such ministries, prostituting
persons can begin to imagine again a God that loves them.
Unfortunately,
many harm reduction efforts targeting prostituting persons are
so focused on HIV/AIDS prevention that they fail to take into
account the humanity of those they seek to assist. Centered on
the goal of stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS, they may also
fail to address the great risks for other diseases and other
physical and psychological harms attributable to prostitution.
These others risks can be quite significant.
For example, a
study conducted in Kunming, China, reported that of 505
prostituting women 84.4% had at least one STI, 48.3% had two
concurrent infections, and 15.2% had three concurrent STIs
(Chen, et al., 2005). The most prevalent STIs were Chlamydia
58.6%, Trichomonas vaginalis 43.2%, and gonorrhoeae 37.8%;
only 10.3% had HIV and of this group, all were injecting drug
users.
Nessa, et al.’s
(2004) research of brothel-based prostitution in Bangladesh
found that of 265 women with cervical infections (e.g.
Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis), more than
half were asymptomatic. The researchers explain that
vaginal infections are typically symptomatic, while cervical
infections are asymptomatic. Since many STI intervention
strategies use syndromatic management, their findings indicate
that such strategies may leave large
numbers of infected prostituting women untreated.
The increasing
practice of oral sex is also affecting the health of
prostituting women (Wong, Chan, & Koh, 2002). Research in
Singapore found that unprotected oral sex increased a
prostituting woman’s risk of acquiring pharyngeal gonorrhea
from sex purchasers by 17 times (Wong, Chan, & Koh). Likewise,
researchers in Israel observed unusually high rates of
pharyngeal gonorrhea among women prostituting in Tel Aviv
(Dan, Poch, Amitai, Gefen, & Shohat, 2006).
Among the
general female population in Mexico, studies have reported
human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence rates of 7% to 13.2% (Juárez-Figueroa,
et al., 2000). A study of 495 prostituting women in Mexico
City found HPV prevalence was 48.9%. Of the more than 20 types
of HPV strongly associated with cancer risk, the prevalence
was 43% versus 24.6% of low-risk. For those women aged 18-23
with 15 or more sex buyers per week HPV prevalence was 82.1%.
Moreover, use of condoms in sex with buyers showed no evidence
of protection against HPV infection.
To what extent
do average prostitution harm reduction methods take into
account these types of health risks, and what of all the other
potential physical health harms of prostitution? In, Farley,
et al.’s (2003) study of 700 people surveyed from seven
countries, researchers observed common medical conditions that
included tuberculosis, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, malaria,
asthma, anemia, and hepatitis.” In addition, 24% of
respondents reported health problems such as uterine
infections, menstrual problems, ovarian pain, abortion
complications, pregnancy, and infertility. Other types of
health problems included (but were not limited to)
gastrointestinal symptoms including ulcers, diarrhea, and
colitis, as well as neurological symptoms including migraine
headaches, memory loss, numbness, seizures, and dizziness.
In case it
remains unclear just how dehumanizing and injurious commercial
sexual activity is across commercial sex sectors, take note of
how even those in the industry intuitively sense the toll the
industry takes on them. One woman involved in stripping (a
commercial sex sector which frequently involves prostitution)
quipped, “You age in dog years when you dance because it’s so
hard” (Barton, 2006, p. 54). Another dancer explained, “It’s
one of those things that either kills you or makes you
stronger. If it doesn’t kill you, it makes you a stronger
person. I mean kill you spiritually, emotionally” (Barton, p.
69). Indicative of the psychological distress experienced by
many women in prostitution another woman stated, “Why commit
suicide? I’ll work in prostitution instead” (Farley, 2003, et
al., p. 53).
The totality of
risks faced by women in the commercial sex industry—physical
assault, rape, verbal abuse, the risk of numerous STIs and
other physical health harms, as well as the psychological
toll—make it is clear that most women in the commercial sex
industry will experience some form of harm over the long-term.
Given the magnitude and chronic nature of these harms, it is
understandable that 89% of prostituting person from nine
countries report wanting to escape prostitution (Farley, et
al. 2003).
There isn’t a
condom distribution program on earth that can ameliorate such
a staggering litany of harms. That is why in addition to
robust harm reduction, Abolitionists promote harm
elimination. Eliminate the sex industry, and you eliminate
all its harms. How do we eliminate the sex industry? By
working to create a culture that rejects the concept of a male
right to buy sex. We can do this in a variety of methods: by
creating legal structures that penalize men for purchasing sex
acts (e.g. Sweden), launching major education efforts aimed at
boys and young men, and by winning male hearts to Christ.
Of course, we
know that this side of Christ’s return, we will never entirely
eliminate either the harms of prostitution on the prostituted,
or the presence of the commercial sex industry. This does not
mean that we should stop efforts on either front.
William Booth
purportedly once said, “It’s better to build a fence at the
top of a precipice than to rescue a man once he has fallen
off.” According to this logic, while it is important that we
continue our efforts to assist those who have plunged over the
cliff and been battered and broken as a consequence, it is
essential that we earnestly endeavor to construct protective
barriers to prevent such senseless destruction. Combating the
normalization of prostitution does just that.
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