The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act (JVTA) a piece of bipartisan anti-trafficking legislation that has been criticised for its prioritisation of law enforcement, passed the US House of Representatives by 420 votes to three on 19th of May. The legislation will now head to President Obama’s desk to be signed into law.
The bill had been long stalled in the Senate over disagreements between Democrats and Republicans over whether or not victims’ funds set up by the bill could be used to cover abortions. A compromise was finally reached that prevented the Republicans from expanding the anti-choice Hyde amendment but still denied abortion coverage to underage victims of trafficking.
Despite the fact that an anti-choice restriction remains in the bill, some feminists groups were pleased with the passage of the JVTA. “After years of advocating that buyers should be held accountable under Federal anti-trafficking laws,” said Equality Now, “we were thrilled to see both the Senate and House pass the Justice Victims Trafficking Act”.
Also not mentioned was the fact that the also problematic Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation Act (SAVE) had been added on to the bill. This legislation would allow website owners to be charged as sex traffickers if any trafficking victims are found to have been advertised on the site—whether or not the website owner had any knowledge of this happening. Sponsors of the bill have specifically stated that their intent is to shut down, or at least seriously cripple, advertising spaces for sex workers, such as Backpage.com, which would take away from sex workers a safe space for screening clients.
While the bill gained support from the usual anti-sex worker feminist organisations, dissent came from a surprising source. The Girls Educational and Mentoring Service (GEMS), an anti-trafficking organisation that runs diversion programmes and takes an abolitionist approach, published a blogpost in March detailing the reasons why they do not support the JVTA.
“This bill buys into a sensationalized presentation of a complex issue,” they wrote, “to which the criminal justice system is somehow the solution. It’s not. We need to focus on prevention and vulnerability, increasing and strengthening services for runaway and homeless youth and significantly reforming our child welfare systems. We need to ensure that young people over the age of 18 have access to affordable housing options, living wage employment and career opportunities, continuing education, affordable child care, and long term supports for their stability, leadership and growth.”
Both advocates for sex workers and victims of trafficking, speaking to RH Reality Check, agreed that the JVTA focuses too much on unproven law enforcement efforts and too little on the needs of survivors or measures that would prevent people becoming victims of trafficking.