Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek balked at funding for two studies intended to research the impact of Oregon’s laws prohibiting prostitution. She used her veto power to strike down the bills totaling $600,000 in research funds. The bebate continues on weather prostitution is a legitimate form of work and should instead be decriminalized. Drug decriminalization may have caused the Governor to put a pause on to see where the state is on this new reality.
Where it seemed before the governor would support the measure, Kotek vetoed a portion of the appropriations bill that provided Oregon Health & Science University $500,000 in state funds for a public health study. The budget bill approved by lawmakers would have also given $100,000 in state money to the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission for a study on the advantages and disadvantages of decriminalizing prostitution. The Criminal Justice Commission is a state agency which researches and evaluates criminal justice programs.
Interestingly enough, there is no federal law prohibiting consensual sex work. Nevada is the only state where sex work is legal. Among the items the governor did not veto: $220,000 to study how military pensions are taxed, $2,000,000 for Columbia County’s courthouse renovation and $300,000 for an independent audit of land purchases by the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission.
In Oregon, the law makes it a class A misdemeanor to offer or engage in sexual conduct in exchange for a fee. If someone charged with prostitution is a trafficking victim, the burden is on the defendant to prove they were being trafficked. Soliciting sex for money, the customer side of the transaction, is also a class A misdemeanor. So, both sides of the transaction is illegal.
Funding for the studies would have come from an appropriations bill, approved by lawmakers, which allocated money to a wide range of initiatives. Lawmakers have more to look at than Nevada. New Zealand decriminalized sex work in 2003. The research found after a study there that sex workers were overall safer, their relationship with law enforcement improved, and sex workers were more likely to report dangerous or exploitative managers.The ability to regulate and monitor consensual sex workers and businesses improved public health and safety. Legalizing prostitution likely made it more difficult for human traffickers to operate, an assessment with which the U.S. State Department agreed.
