Whatever we can think of, someone, somewhere has done it - or is doing it. Christianity Today reports that Germany has legalized prostitution and is setting up "sex huts" around stadiums during its World Cup (soccer or football) series.
Supposedly the sports fans cannot control themselves for a period of time, so the German government is providing a "relief valve."
There is no excuse for a Nation to subsidize and legalize the use of women's bodies for sex - whether for pay or not. No one in this day of hundreds of varieties of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, including HIV/AIDS and the long-overdue recognition that 99%+ of cervical cancer is caused by a "venereal disease," would consider prostitution a "victimless crime."
Countering claims that it is the woman's body and her "choice," the CT editorial cites these statistics:
Prostitution is anything but glamorous. The U.S. State Department's office to monitor and combat trafficking in persons points to prostitution's 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."
The statistics are sickening. "Field research in nine countries concluded that 60 to 75 percent of women in prostitution were raped, 70 to 95 percent were physically assaulted, and 68 percent met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder in the same range as treatment-seeking combat veterans and victims of state-organized torture," the office reports. "Beyond this shocking abuse, the public health implications of prostitution are devastating and include a myriad of serious and fatal diseases, including HIV/AIDS." The study found that 89 percent of respondents wanted to leave prostitution.
1 comment:
Oh, fully agreed with you there! In princible.
Although... I think there is some limited reason to act otherwise, in the interests of public health. Men want sex. I dont know why they want it from anyone and women seem to mostly want full relationships, but a large number of men do just want easy sex. And one way or another, there will be prostitutes to give it to them. You can prosicute them, but more appear.
If they have to be around, then these are some advantages to regulation. They can be regually tested for STIs, and the 'clients' can be made to wear condoms, and turned away if they refuse. The government-monitored and regulated employers would be better than pimps, and the prostitutes will be less likely to use drugs. Its not a perfect solution, but better than leaving infected prostitutes to have anonymous sex with many men.
No prostitutes at all would, of course, be best of all. But realisticly... not going to happen. Nice ideal though. And perhaps, if the problem of STIs is ever solved by a mirracle of medicine, those places that try limited and regulated prostitution can make another attempt at it.
Oh, while you were away, the first vaccine for that HPV you mentioned recieved FDA approval. Its available now, though far too expensive for a mass-vaccination program. The price is likely to fall. Clinical trials show it to be almost perfectly effective.
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