Prostitution by minors is now legal in California. You heard right…..it’s just another misguided idea out of the liberal California legislature.
SB 1322 bars law enforcement from arresting sex workers who are under the age of 18 for soliciting or engaging in prostitution or loitering with the intent to do so. That means teenage girls and boys in California are free to have sex in exchange for money without fear of arrest or prosecution.
This terribly destructive legislation was written and passed by the progressive Democrats who control California’s state government with a two-thirds “supermajority.” To their credit, they are sincere in their belief that decriminalizing underage prostitution is good public policy that will help victims of sex trafficking.
But as Travis Allen of the Washington Examiner points out, “Unfortunately, the reality is that the legalization of underage prostitution suffers from the fatal defect endemic to progressive-left policymaking: it ignores experience, common sense and most of all human nature — especially its darker side.
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, a national leader on human trafficking issues, told the media, “It just opens up the door for traffickers to use these kids to commit crimes and exploit them even worse.”
Another prosecutor insightfully observed that if traffickers wrote legislation to protect themselves, it would read like SB 1322.