Abortion & Prostitution: Harm Reduction

I’m about as anti-abortion as they come within the pro-choice camp. I don’t like thinking about the difficult decisions that would have to be made if I were to get a woman pregnant at this point in my life when I’m not ready to raise a child. Not that it would be my decision at all, which bothers me from a gender point of view. Since I have no viable solutions to that issue, I’ll leave it as a side-note. The pro-life brigade has all sorts of tactics for trying to lure me to their side. “What if that child was destined to be the next great scientist or world leader?” Actually, that child’s destiny was to be aborted. Funny how people who believe in destiny fundamentally misunderstand how it works.

Abortion isn’t 100% safe for the mother from a physical standpoint. Note the deliberate usage of the words “mother” and “child”. Abortion is even less safe psychologically. No, it doesn’t thrill me and my baby-killing cronies to know that many women suffer as a result. I find it appalling that some women use it as a form of birth control. So how can I be pro-choice? Because the alternative is worse.

—

Prostitution is illegal similar to the way drugs are illegal. Have enough money and go through the right channels, and you have very little to worry about. Want to find an escort in Orange County? 70+ listings right here. Prices range from $300-$1000 an hour. It’s unlikely any of these are vice squad plants. If you’re that worried, just read reviews at The Erotic Review… yes, people rate their prostitutes online. How do I know all this? … I know an awful lot about a number of things I have no experience with.

Some prudes may exclaim, “How could a woman sell her body for only $300 dollars?!?” Rational people will point out that, with an average of an hour appointment a day, that’s $109,500 under-the-table dollars a year for a 7-hour workweek. Not to mention that high-end escorts get taken to fancy restaurants, given fancy gifts, and brought along on fancy vacations. It’s not worth it for cops to go after these independent, high-priced escorts. They know how to avoid law enforcement, but beyond that one must take a look at their clients. The type of person who can afford $300 for an hour of sex is the type of person who earns about that much themselves. The kind of wealthy person that doesn’t get arrested for committing victimless crimes.

Drugged up, pimped out street-walkers are a different matter. They’re more likely to get cut up and left as a body for homicide to handle. Their johns are more likely to get roughed up by a pimp. You could argue (not well) that the higher end prostitutes are being exploited, but these women certainly are. Beyond that, it’s a threat to public health. Call girls practice safe sex and don’t spread disease; the same cannot be said for the lower end of the spectrum.

Independents have nothing to gain from legalization – even if it fully legalized their preferred way of doing business. Granted, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, in Las Vegas who made a great living outside of the legal brothels, but that’s more of a reflection on the nature of Vegas. With legalization of brothels, there would still be street-walkers and still be high end independents – so why bother? When you make the relatively harmless stuff legal, you can focus on the harmful side. You offer protection to both sides of a legitimate business interaction. Because, morally, it is wrong to make people who are not criminals into criminals.

—

The link between abortion and prostitution may not appear clear, but both are cases of harm reduction. Do we know, from experience, that women will still get abortions regardless of legality? Yes, we do. Do we know that people will still sell and use drugs regardless of legality? Of course we do. Do we know that prostitution is the so-called “oldest profession” and will go on regardless of the law? Then why not accept that these things are destined to occur, regardless of how morally repugnant they may appear to be? Instead of legislating morality, ensuring that people can be protected by the law instead of damaged by it. Given inevitability, that seems to be the morally just thing to do.