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Lawmaker seeks more protection for human-trafficking victims
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
A Democratic state lawmaker wants state law changed to protect more human-trafficking victims.
Rep. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, said Friday she will offer legislation to ensure 16- and 17-years-olds trapped in human trafficking don’t face prostitution charges but instead are provided with services to escape their captors.
“Children are not consenting to be victims; they’re not consenting to be voluntarily raped by whomever,” Fedor said during a midday press conference at the Statehouse. “I’m going to extend the provisions of safe harbor, services rather than incarceration, first, and that’s our goal.”
Federal law already categorizes such individuals as victims.
“So why, under Ohio law, don’t we give them that same recognition?” said Maureen Guirguis, co-director of the Case Western Reserve University School of Law Human Trafficking Clinic. “Sixteen- and 17-year-olds can’t vote in the state; they can’t walk into a bar; they can’t walk into a strip club; they can’t buy liquor; they can’t enter into a contract. … But yet we’re saying that we can charge them with prostitution. It really defies logic.”
Fedor has spearheaded other changes in state law to increase criminal penalties against those who force women and men into sexual activities or labor for pay and to provide assistance to victims of the crime.