Why Prostitution Should Be Legal

Why should prostitution be legal?

Can anybody tell me what is considered to be the world’s most ancient profession? (doesn’t require education, mostly involves women)

Some researchers confirm that prostitution is indeed the most ancient profession, while others argue with it; however, everybody agrees that trading sex for money has existed for quite a while. According to Wikipedia, prostitution began in the 21st century BC in Near East, most likely as a religious custom, and was practiced by Greeks, Romans, China and other ancient civilizations. Now, as we have entered into the 21st century AD, prostitution is still a part of modern society. The fact speaks for itself: as there will always be a demand for the services that it provides, prostitution will exist in some form no matter what.

The National Task Force on Prostitution suggests that over one million people in the US have at some point of their lives worked as prostitutes, with 4 years being an average length of their career. The above mentioned number equals to 1% of American women. (8)

Many nations reconsidered prostitution as something necessarily evil and against the law by legalizing it. England, France, Germany, Denmark, Canada, and Israel are some of them. However, prostitution stays illegal in the US, excluding 11 out of 17 counties of Nevada. Isn’t it time to accept it as a part of our reality and try to regulate it?

Before going any further, I would like to say that I will not be trying to justify prostitution or vice versa - it is up to every one of you to decide on the morality of the issue. And secondly, for the purpose of this speech, I would like to define the term legalization. Most contexts use it to refer to any system that allows some prostitution, which usually means state control of the industry, including taxes for prostitutes, obtaining licenses, establishing restrictions, and health checks. However, legalization does not necessarily have to refer to the above sorts of regulations.

When arguing against legalizing prostitution, health issue is one of the first one to arise, with an emphasis on sexually transmitted diseases.

People are used to blaming prostitutes in the continuous spread of STDs in the US. Indeed, the numbers look quite scary. According to American Social Health Association, the US has the highest rate of STDs in the industrialized world, with around 19 million new cases of STDs occurring each year, not including HIV. (6) However, the US Department of Health reports that only 3 to 5 % of the STD cases is prostitution related. (9)

Legislation should make it mandatory for all the workers within the industry to go through regular check-ups in order to keep their jobs. Think about it. When nobody forces sexual workers to go through regular medical examination, there is a good chance they don’t, unless they see something wrong is going on with them. The problem is that a lot of STDs are silent in their early stages, showing absolutely no symptoms. As a result, they can go undetected and untreated for quite a while. Being unaware of the infection they carry, prostitutes can pass the disease to others. Besides, some of those STDs may result in infertility, miscarriage, cervical cancer and other complications. In Nevada, where sex for money is legal, prostitutes have to check themselves weekly for STDs, and monthly for HIV. Since 1986, when mandatory testing began, not a single brothel prostitute in Nevada has ever tested positive for HIV. (8)

Legalizing prostitution is believed to reduce gender violence and provide overall safety for the sexual workers, who get assaulted, beaten up, and raped more than anybody else. With prostitution being illegal, women stay unprotected. A study of 130 street workers in San Francisco found that 80 % had been physically assaulted. Some prostitutes are raped 8-10 times a year or even more. Most of it comes from the pimps and customers. Legalization would provide those women with rights, just like any other workers. They would be able to sue a client if he doesn’t pay for the service.

Legalization and regulation would help take prostitution off the streets to special places (brothels, massage parlors, etc.). A controlled environment would provide the safety mentioned above. Indeed, if it is legal and safe to work within a brothel, why would prostitutes hang out on the street, putting themselves at risk of being arrested, or assaulted? Legal prostitution would eradicate pimps, who are notorious for treating their workers on a subhuman level.

Many human rights activists oppose legalization because they associate prostitution with slavery, human trafficking, or other forms of forced prostitution. Legalizing would help reduce it by making it a choice of an adult, not a result of someone taking advantage