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Ohio House approves human-trafficking bill
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
The Ohio House gave its approval Wednesday to legislation aimed at combating human trafficking, sending it to Gov. Ted Strickland for his signature.
Substitute Senate Bill 235 passed on a vote of 95-0, one week after comparable results in the Ohio Senate. Strickland’s signature will make the law change official.
The bill toughens existing laws to further combat human trafficking, making the offense a second-degree felony carrying prison sentences of up to eight years.
Rep. Kathleen Chandler, a Democrat from Kent who sponsored related legislation in the Ohio House, cited United Nations’ statistics ranking human trafficking for forced labor, sexual or other purposes as the second largest and second fastest-growing crime worldwide.
“This is a multibillion-dollar industry,” Chandler said, adding later, “Human trafficking takes away the most fundamental of human rights. This is the most humiliating, degrading and vicious form of slavery that one can imagine.”