I read an editorial last month in the S.F. chronicle by Caille Millner that I saved, points of which I want to share:
Arguments she's heard to legalize prostitution include: 1)people do it anyway, 2)why not make it safe, and 3)prostitution can be a 'positive' thing for women.
Regarding the first argument, she says "making a case for whatever you want legalized based on the idea that some people will flout the law is the thinnest of all defenses." People murder, for example, and few clamor to legalize that. Laws aren't written merely for expediency, but morality.
Regarding the second, she says violence and exploitation will not magically disappear. There is even some evidence that "issues" like rape, physical assaults, robbery, and human trafficking have been exacerbated in and around the parts of Nevada where some legal prostitution is allowed. This possibility, in her view, negates the argument that there is greater benefit in the opportunity to ensure that some sex workers submit to a regular battery of std tests.
Finally, it's not. Plain and simple. No woman wants to be reduced to her body parts. Having sex you don't enjoy with strangers you don't like is not a 'positive' thing. She says, "There are reasons why so many sex workers were abused as children, suffer from substance abuse problems, and have feelings of low self-worth, and it's not because they've got such healthy jobs. It's because they already feel like they've been devalued, and now they're in a profession that reinforces that." Very few people, who support legalization, will answer in the affirmative to the question, "is this the kind of "career route" you would want for your sister or daughter?"
She thinks law enforcement should more fairly focus on pimps and johns, who assert brutality against sex workers, than the prostitutes themselves.
An interesting discussion re: legalization is at surveycentral.
Also,
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