Obama Says "No" To Legal Prostitution as Part of Job Plan

Well the verdict is in: Obama is no Bill Clinton. Showing an apparent disdain for the availability of young women and good pot his predecessor prized, Obama shot down a town hall meeting suggestion to legalize prostitution, drugs, and gambling as part of his new plan to create jobs. Looks like we're in for seven more vice-free, recession-heavy years. Or are we?

The original suggestion came from ... wait for it ... a college student. Who'da thunk? Apparently this young man had read some statistics which indicated that legalizing prostitution, drugs, gambling, and "other non-violent crimes" would help the economy, as well as the lump in his pants, his buzz, and his frat's annual fundraiser. Win-win, right Mr. President? Ever the statesmen, Obama complimented the student on his boldness and then promptly shut him down. However, Obama followed up by giving the student props for "questioning conventional wisdom." I think those props are now selling on Ebay for about $200,000 each.

College is certainly the time for questioning conventional wisdom, authority, and anything that disagrees with Pabst Blue Ribbon or Nietzsche. And Obama proved himself open and cool by acknowledging that despite his wholesale rejection of the idea, he appreciates the suggestion. In fact, the biggest flaw in the argument for the legalization of prostitution is not its outside-the-box creativity, but the assumption that prostitution is a non-violent crime. To the contrary, prostitution is often a violent crime. It's violent when buyers beat or rape the women they buy sex from. It's violent when pimps or police officers attack women in prostitution. It's violent when it's the only option to avoid starvation or eviction. But perhaps the most pernicious and prolific form of violence present in prostitution is human trafficking.

Women and children are trafficked into prostitution against their will in countries where prostitution is legal and in countries where prostitution is illegal. In prostitution, trafficking victims are sometime forced to have sex with ten or twenty men per day. They are threatened and beaten and raped if they don't comply. They are isolated from their families, made to be dependent on their traffickers, and often denied life-saving medicines and protection from diseases. Thousands upon thousands of these acts of violence are perpetrated on victims of human trafficking during prostitution transactions.

Is every prostitution transaction violent? No. But given the prevalence of human trafficking in prostitution, we cannot in good conscience give prostitution "non-violent crime" status. It would be like calling simple assault a non-violent crime because sometimes no one gets hurt.

This college student did exactly what he should have: boldly question conventional wisdom. And Obama reacted exactly as he should have: by listening to the overwhelming data and opinions that prostitution is not a "non-violent crime." I fully believe we can develop a jobs strategy that doesn't legalize an institution that is the vehicle for multiple forms of violence against women. And I believe Obama can get us there.

Photo credit: telethon