Why Should Prostitution Be Legalized?

At this moment forty million prostitutes are at work. It is completely legal and regulated within twenty-two countries. Yet, prostitution is one of the biggest problems around the world and remains a controversial topic. Prostitution should not be legalized for the following three reasons: first, because prostitution is society’s betrayal of women; second, not legalizing prostitution will prevent HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) from spreading; and, third a prostitute’s psychological well being is unhealthy and prostitution erodes the womens’ self confidence.

First, prostitution should not be legalized because it is society’s betrayal of women and children. Legalizing prostitution makes marginalized

and other forms of STD´s. According to Nepal, “On average, sex workers are 10 times more likely to become infected with HIV than adults in the general population.” Even requiring weekly HIV testing for men and women would not prevent the spread because, in order to have accurate HIV testing, you have to wait four to six, or possibly even twelve, weeks after being infected to be tested. According to Laga “While women are being tested, prostitutes go and expose up to six hundred and thirty clients to HIV.” Plus, this assumes that women will stop selling their bodies when they are aware that they have been infected. Even with the testing, affected women still continue to prostitute themselves. Women will continue to sell their bodies because being a prostitute is their only income and all they know. Nepal explains that “Those who exchange sex more regularly as a source of ongoing income are at higher risk for HIV than those who do so infrequently.” Some of the diseases prostitutes might catch include HIV/AIDS, bacterial vaginosis, candidiasis, hepatitis B and many more. Therefore, in order to decrease the spread of HIV and AIDS, society must abolish

According to Ravi, “Many prostitutes who have been sexually assaulted suffer from the psychological effects of rape and sexual abuse. These include rape trauma syndrome, post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), low self-esteem, guilt, and self-destructiveness.” Making prostitution legal makes women think poorly of themselves and often results in an increase drug use to eliminate mental pain. According to Farley, “In prostitution, men remove women's humanity. Buying a woman in prostitution gives men the power to turn women into a living, breathing masturbation fantasy. He removes her self and those qualities that define her as an individual, and for him she becomes sexualized body parts. She acts the part of the thing he wants her to be.” Prostitutes often start believing they are commodities because that is how men treat them and it causes them to have mental issues. Women that are raped feel worthless and like they are no longer important to society. By becoming a prostitute, women have a very high chance of becoming a victim of domestic violence. However, a woman’s body is not meant to me’s the urges. Prostitution violates the right to physical and moral integrity, by alienating womens’ sexuality and reducing it to a commodity to be bought and sold. Prostitution causes high anxiety before, during, and after sex. According to Schafer, “When women end up getting out of