Four female state representatives say NH should study whether to legalize prostitution

CONCORD - Four female state representatives have sponsored a bill that proposes establishing a committee to study decriminalizing "sex work."

House Bill 287 calls for a committee of three state representatives and three members of the state Senate to study "the positive and negative results of decriminalizing sex work, decriminalizing the selling of sex and decriminalizing both the buying and selling of sex work, including the effects of rape and sexual assault, rates of sexually transmitted infections, costs to the police and court systems, number of arrests for prostitution, effects in future earnings potential to men and woman with arrest records or conviction records, and demographics on race, gender identity, and socioeconomic status of arrested individuals compared to the general population."

One of the bill's sponsors, State Rep. Kate Murray, a New Castle Democrat, said the bill is "not about legalizing prostitution and I have no interest in legalizing prostitution."

"To my mind, this is about establishing a committee to study how we deal with victims of human trafficking with the goal of protecting the victim," she said. "This is about establishing a committee to simply study the issue. A number of states are wrestling with this issue and this is an opportunity to look at how they are dealing with it."

Read more: http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/20170115/bill-calls-for-study-decriminalizing-sex-work