France may make it illegal to pay for sex

It seems that the hysteria continues and the madness becomes even more infectious. A tiny but vicious minority of moral zealots in positions of power it appears can unashamedly manipulate the media and weak politicians into considering abusive and unjust legislation. France it seems is the next European country considering adopting Swedish human rights abuse (criminalising clients of sex workers) on the absurd assumptions that it will save the eighty percent of sex workers whom they claim are forced into sex work and are trafficked. Of course no sex worker has been consulted about this legislation. Naturally the emphasis once again is on women sex workers only and of course only men are mentioned as abusers because we all know that women are always victims, unable to make any choices about anything, ever.

The battle has now begun to fight this absurd nonsense and fingers crossed sanity will prevail.

Here is a Guardian article reporting on the proposal:

France is to consider making it illegal to pay for sex, in a rethink of prostitution laws.

A cross-party commission of French MPs have recommended criminalising all clients of sex workers, meaning anyone who buys sex from any kind of prostitute would face prison and a fine.

If a law is introduced, France would join only a handful of European countries where clients of sex workers face prison. In 1999 Sweden became the first, followed by Norway and Iceland.

The Socialist Danielle Bousquet and Guy Geoffroy of Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP said clients must understand that any visit to a prostitute encouraged slavery and trafficking – which 80% of the estimated 20,000 sex-workers in France were victims of.

Roselyne Bachelot, the social affairs minister, favours criminalising clients. She told the commission inquiry: “There is no such thing as freely chosen and consenting prostitution. The sale of sexual acts means women’s bodies are made available for men, independently of the wishes of those women.”

Proposals for a law could be drawn up this month but it would not be debated in parliament before 2012.

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sex worker activist..

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