Constitutional Law

Standing Up for Trafficking Victims

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU

Yesterday, Change.org's Amanda Koer published an interview with the ACLU's Brigitte Amiri about our lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

A: Why do you think it is important for human trafficking victims to have access to reproductive healthcare?

B: Most women who have been trafficked have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their traffickers. As the government itself has recognized, denying reproductive health care services to women who have been trafficked further victimizes these women. For example, some traffickers prohibit women from accessing contraception, including condoms, and force trafficked women to carry a pregnancy to term or to have an abortion. Allowing these women to make their own decisions about reproductive health care is important so that they can become self sufficient. Also, people who are trafficked and forced to work in the sex trade have higher incidence of HIV. It is therefore crucial that they are provided information about, and have access to, condoms.

Read the full interview here, and you can learn more about the lawsuit, ACLU of Massachusetts v. Sebelius, here.

Full post as published by Blog of Rights on April 27, 2010 (boomark / email).