page_title: International Abolitionist Federation
section_title: Opposing views
hierarchical_section_title: International Abolitionist Federation / Opposing views
caption_attribution_description: English: Temperance activist Lady Henry Somerset in 1884
context_page_description: The International Abolitionist Federation, founded in Liverpool in 1875, aimed to abolish state regulation of prostitution and fought the international traffic in women in prostitution. It was originally called the British and Continental Federation for the Abolition of Prostitution.
  The federation was active in Europe, the Americas, and the European colonies and mandated territories. It felt that state regulations encouraged prostitution while having the effect of enslaving women in prostitution.
  It felt that the solution lay in moral education, empowerment of women through the right to acquire skills and work, and marriage.
  The federation experienced opposition from the authorities in Europe and the colonies, who were unwilling to relinquish control, and from reformers who wanted to suppress traffic of women but were less concerned with their welfare.
  After World War I, the IAF was involved in discussions about League of Nations conventions on the issues, and after World War II, about United Nations conventions.
  In later years, the main focus was on eliminating unjust regulations that violated women's rights.
context_section_description: Authorities in the European countries and their colonial territories often saw abolition of regulations as a threat to their authority.
  Male-led "purity reformers" also saw no need to protect the rights of women in prostitution.
  In 1899 the purity reformers founded the International Bureau for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic (later Traffic in Women and Children, then Traffic in Persons).
  These later changes in name reflected shifts in focus to include non-white women and boys being trafficked for prostitution.
  The International Bureau felt the state should have control over the sexual activities of which they disapproved, but avoided the question of regulation. Each national committee of the Bureau wanted to protect the women of their own country from export to foreign brothels, and to criminalize women imported from other countries.
  The state authorities preferred to work with the International Bureau, which did not challenge their authority to prosecute unregistered women in prostitution and brothels, to import voluntary prostitutes and to deport foreign women in prostitution.
  The movement also had to address women who thought regulations should be reformed rather than abolished. 
  These women, often from the upper classes, thought greater control of prostitution would reduce the health risks from sexually transmitted diseases, both for the men buying sex and for their wives, and reduced the risk of women being attacked by men unable to find an outlet for their sexual urges.
  Thus Lady Henry Somerset, first vice-president of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, advocated reforming regulations in India rather than abolishing them. 
  IAF activists in all countries were consistently opposed to such a position.
  Supporters of regulation were able to show statements from women in prostitution that they felt safer in brothels than on the streets, health checks let them gain business by showing clients they had a clean bill of health, and government regulation removed the stigma of their occupation. Abolitionists said these were exceptional cases. Interviews by IAF and Women's Christian Temperance Union reformers in India in the late 19th century showed that women in prostitution serving the troops detested the compulsory medical checks.
caption: Lady Henry Somerset of the WCTU favored regulation in India
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