----- Why Did Democrats Block Human Trafficking Bill?  ------

23 March 2015Unit 4: Institutions of National Government

Divisive issue of abortion stalls human trafficking bill

http://www.aol.com/article/2015/03/21/divisive-issue-of-abortion-stalls-human-trafficking-bill/21156024/

The Democratic Party in the Senate found a small but largely controversial addition to the human sex trafficking bill being discussed.  That small find is a “slip-in” addition by the Republicans that adds a reference to abortion. The bill itself was introduced back in February of 2015 with a bi-partisan effort backing it.  There is no telling when the bill will be moved forward or at worst, forgotten about.  This bill is important to the United States because it helps the thousands of children that will find themselves a victim engaged in sex trafficking.  According to the US Justice Department, an estimated 300 thousand adolescents are at risk of being lured into human sex trafficking each year in the United States, most of these children are runaways.  Some of the biggest cities for trafficking are El Paso, Houston, Philadelphia, etc.  The bill is supposed to launch a program that would give police officers all over the nation the funds to purse trafficking cases.  It would tighten the way prosecutors target their offenders of the law, by tightening it was established in the proposed law that anyone convicted of sex trafficking or other similarities of the bill is automatically charged a $5,000 dollar fine that would go back into the funded program to help with resources and salaries for officers.

One of the current issues that the United States and in many foreign countries are dealing with right now is human trafficking whether for drugs, prostitution, or other means of slavery.  Human trafficking happens on all levels of government: national, city, and local.  President Obama’s attorney general nominee, Loretta Lynch, was practically in the middle of signing the bill before the republicans held her back until the abortion issue between the parties is solved.  Many women, even those who are Republican, believe that it is a woman’s right to do what she wants with her own body.  Many Democrats and Republicans were appreciative that this bill was looking promising before the abortion battle began.  The democrats want funding for abortion clinics and had to filibuster the bill would it came to Republicans slipping into a hole that would cut funding for abortions.  It does not look good from a political standpoint on either party holding up the bill as they are.  Negotiations are being done yet there are thousands of children being forced into human trafficking situations.  This bill could help thousands of adolescents be rescued from this miserable way of life.