When her son was young, a friend of mine had a campaign-style button that read, “What part of ‘NO’ don’t you understand?”
It’s a question North Dakota voters should ask members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who allowed a last-minute abortion “gag” provision to be inserted into important human trafficking legislation. Frankly, it is a question the Senate Judiciary Committee should have asked the representatives of the Catholic Conference who proposed the amendment. Plain and simple, North Dakotans do not want government “gagging” medical professionals and they have said so at the ballot box.
North Dakota voters have been absolutely clear about where government belongs and where it doesn’t: It does not belong in our bedrooms or in our doctors’ exam rooms. Through the defeat of the “Religious Liberty Amendment” in June 2013 and the defeat of Measure 1 (“Personhood Amendment”) in November 2014, voters sent a strong message to the folks who have pledged to represent them: We don’t want politicians butting into our medical care or telling our doctors what they can and cannot say to us.
Note there was nothing subtle about the votes. The amendments weren’t simply defeated, they were defeated by large majorities. In both cases 64 percent of North Dakotans voted against them.
If those votes weren’t enough, the November defeat of two highly visible legislators - legislators who hung their legislative hats on denying women reproductive rights - should have been unquestionably clarifying. Certainly, senators should have come away from the election with enough common sense to avoid a last-minute abortion amendment they had no time to vet. (For instance, did anybody ask what it will cost North Dakota taxpayers if the amendment is challenged in court?)
Sex trafficking is a vicious business that has come as a shock to our state. It’s no exaggeration to say its prevalence - particularly in oil country - has been hard to get our heads around. Frankly, law enforcement has had to play catch-up to be able to understand the difference between sex trafficking and (for want of a better phrase) “old-fashioned” prostitution. In order to identify and connect victims to resources while effectively prosecuting their traffickers, law enforcement officials have needed new protocols, greater classification of offenses, and clearer definitions of terminology. Senate Bill 2107, the Uniform Act on Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking (UAPRHT), provides all of that. It is important legislation with bipartisan support.
Unfortunately, as it moves from Senate to House, it also now is saddled with an unfortunate abortion amendment.
Cynically, senators involved in the process have pooh-poohed concerns about the amendment by saying the amendment echoes language in lots of North Dakota law and that there will be ways to get around it. Forgive the obvious question, but if the amendment is so pro forma and easy to negate, why add it? For that matter, voters might like to know where all those assurances are coming from, particularly what the attorney general has to say about it.
What is most offensive about this amendment is the false rhetoric advanced with it. There is nothing in the human trafficking bill “to expand abortion in North Dakota at taxpayer expense.” That’s garbage-talk by proponents to gin up their supporters. And it is particularly insulting to medical and social service professionals to suggest they would counsel “for” abortion or, for that matter, “against” abortion. Victims of trafficking have endured years with their minds and bodies controlled by their traffickers. They need compassion, complete information, and supportive services to start life again with new direction. They must learn that their decisions are their own.
U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., who has been working hard on national sex trafficking legislation, reported that 13 is the average age a child is first trafficked. From North Dakota news sources we’ve learned girls often are “branded” with tattoos to show what trafficker “owns” them; we’re told they might be forced to engage in 1,800 sex acts in a year. The word “vile” is not strong enough to describe their experience.
Good legislation will go a long way toward ending the practice of human sex trafficking in our state. North Dakotans want it passed unencumbered.
Ahlin is a columnist for The Forum of-Fargo-Moorhead, which is a part of Forum News Service. Email janeahlin@yahoo.com
