Prostitution ought to be legalized

It would seem that my opponent doesn’t believe that women are capable of making decisions for themselves about that which they most fundamentally own- their own body. Her opinion here is clear from the very fact that she is arguing that prostitutes are victims- that them consenting to sex for money can’t be seen as consent. But to be perfectly clear on this, even if the voter buys the faulty logic that a prostitute is a victim, they should still vote for me. This is because of the original question that frames this debate- should prostitutes be punished for something they would do anyway? If you view prostitutes as the victim, then it would seem ridiculous to punish the victim, which is what keeping prostitution illegal would do. If you don’t view a prostitute as a victim, but rather as an adult who is perfectly capable of making decisions for herself, then there is no reason to punish prostitution, as it is a victimless crime. So now that we’ve addressed the most important issue of this debate, which is whether or not women are capable of exercising their right to self-ownership, which ends up in my favor regardless of whether you see the prostitutes as victims or not, I’ll address some of the finer points of this debate. My opponent says that you can’t have bodily autonomy when you’re working for money. This is simply not true. Can your boss control what you eat? What you do in your free time? If your boss is trying to do that, then, in most industries, people are perfectly free to leave. As I stated in my previous round, when prostitution is illegal, the prostitute is not as free to leave, as she cannot do so without fear for her safety, and she cannot go to the authorities without fear of punishment. When you make it legal, the prostitute could switch employers, giving her the same amount self-ownership as any other legal worker in America. So if we can make the industry safer for those who decide to exchange sex for money by legalizing it, then we should do just that. In a world where prostitution is legal, prostitutes do not have to fear violence from customers or bosses because they refuse to do a sex act, same as other workers in other industries do not have to fear violence from customers or bosses. My opponent then goes on to do a drastic mischaracterization of my arguments when she says “the law, regardless of what my opponent says, cannot legalize rape. ” I have never said anything about legalizing rape, and this is a blatantly dishonest statement that should be punished by the voters. I have shown repeatedly that this would increase rape reporting, which makes it so that the rapes actually have potential to be punished. I have shown that once prostitution is legalized, the prostitutes will have the ability to actually say “no” and not fear punishment. She then goes on to attack my point on STD spread reduction by saying that legalizing prostitution would increase the unregulated portion of prostitution to such a high degree that STD spread would be increased. Lets say for the sake of argument that some prostitutes don’t want the safety that comes with being a part of the regulated industry- let’s say that 15% of the industry is illegal (and that’s a very high number given the incentives). That would mean that the entire industry would have to become almost seven times larger than it currently is for her objection to my contention to stand, which is ridiculous. On top of that, the increase in size would not be instantaneous, and would happen over time, and with that time, lawmakers could learn how to better deal with prostitution. So to conclude this debate, a vote for my side of the debate is a vote to respect a woman’s right to choose, to reduce the spread of STDs, a vote to make a safer work environment for prostitutes, to not punish a victimless act, and if you buy into her idea that prostitutes are victims (which I have address multiple times as a problem that comes with the prohibition, not with the line of work), a vote to not punish victims.