Reasonsfor illegalizing prostitution in the US
Prostitutionrefers to the act of engaging in sexual activities with someone inorder to earn money. Human beings have a right to do whatever theywant with their bodies (Anderson, 2015). However, there is an extentto which they can go and cannot go when handling their bodies. Muchhas been said about prostitution, whether it should be legal orillegal. As much as human beings are entitled to do whatever theywant with their bodies, the government is strict about what theycannot do hence illegalizing prostitution in several areas. Thispaper provides a counterargument on why prostitution shouldn’t belegal in the United States.
Ideally,keeping prostitution illegal within the many states in America onlyallows for sex workers to acquire harm without any furthercompensations. Prostitution is like rape in fact, most women whoengage in prostitution have been experiencing the risks of not beingpaid. Statistics even indicate that a huge number of women inprostitution have a stated they run risks of being raped at leastonce in a week. Prostitution is like a form of rape where one ispaid. Prostitutes normally submit to the demands of the customer(Anderson, 2015). Perhaps, the major concern is that if the womanfails to obey the desires of the customer, then she might be raped.In addition, legalizing the same will increase the cases of sextrafficking where women especially young girls are exposed to badtreatment against their will.
Withprostitution being fully legalized within the United States, it candrastically prevent any sexually transmitted diseases from beingspread around all individuals associated with prostitution. In asetting where prostitution is legalized, there are laws that governthe practice of prostitution, laws that protect the life andconditions of prostitutes (Standley, 2012). For example, prostitutesin the US are required to be tested for HIV/AIDS and other sexuallytransmitted diseases every week. However, scientific reportsindicates that a HIV infected person can test negative for at leastfour to six weeks and at most twelve weeks after contacting thedisease. Interestingly, during this period the infected one cantransmit the disease to other clients within the business (Anderson,2015). This therefore indicate that as much as legalizingprostitution might seem to control the spread of STDs, it does nothelp much in controlling the disease.
Themain argument for keeping prostitution illegal within the remainingstates has a lot to do with morals and values, rather than reason.Prostitution is wrong and its institution is considered as evil(Anderson, 2015). As much as people still refer to it as the oldestprofession, it doesn’t make it right. It is a practice thatobjectifies women by allowing men to degrade them. It promotes drugabuse, violence and trafficking which leads to the abuse of young andinnocent girls. In addition, most of the prostitutes have foundthemselves stigmatized from the society once their profession isknown by the public (Moral, 2015). This indicates that the professionis not accepted by the society because it is against the morals andvalues of the society.
Conclusion
Prostitutionhas a lot of pros and cons however, it should not be legalized in theUS since its effects are not good within the society. As discussed inthe paper, it is evident that prostitution exposes sex workers tounfavorable conditions that doesn’t have any compensation. Inaddition, it does not reduce the spread of HIV and other STDs since aHIV infected person can test negative for up to 12 weeks aftercontacting the disease which mean that during this period, theinfected will still infect other clients. More importantly,prostitution is wrong since it is against the values and morals ofthe society therefore, prostitution should not be legalized.
References
Anderson,D. (2015). Top 10 reasons prostitution should be illegal. Listland[Online]Available at:http://www.listland.com/top-10-reasons-prostitution-should-be-illegal/Accessed on: December 14th,2016.
Moral,R. (2015). Buying sex should not be legal. NewYork Times. [Online].Available at:http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/29/opinion/buying-sex-should-not-be-legal.html?_r=0Accessed on: December 14th,2016.
Standley,W. (2012). Legal Prostitution in Nevada: Brothels are Legal in SomeNevada Counties. [Online] Available at:http://renotahoe.about.com/od/govemmentcityservices/a/LegalProstitution-In-Nevada.htm.Accessed on December 14th,2016.
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