Legalized prostitution let this reality become more realistic and cruel. If parliament passes the prostitution reform bill, New Zealand will be adopting a legislative model that has not only failed to achieve its objectives in Australia, it has given clients more power, made prostitutes more vulnerable and has lead to growth in the industry of prostitution. (Jeffreys, 2003: 10).
Secondly, legalization of prostitution does not protect the women in prostitution. For instance, the prostitution reform bill can not ensure to protect prostitutes from transmitted diseases. (I.e. AIDS). Sheila Jeffreys says that law changes in Australia were aimed at "stopping the illegal industry and police corruption, reducing harm to women stopping street prostitution" and that they have failed (Jeffreys, 2003: 8). If the laws fail to achieve those promises, how can the prostitution reform bill protect prostitutes from transmitted diseases? As Jeffreys says, since the laws were changed in Australia the harms have increased and "significant new harms have joined them, such as the traffic in women" (ibid).
Last but not least, I believed that legalization of prostitution does not enhance prostitutes" choices. I agree that the enormous number of prostitutes who enter prostitution without being coerced into it by a third party do so for economic reasons, Nevertheless, there are still vast majority of those felt they had no other options. (ibid). It is fairly irresponsible to reduce the issue to "for and against". When Melissa Farley (2003) interviewed 46 prostitutes aged between 17 and 51 years in Auckland and Wellington, 72 percent of the respondents, in brothels and street prostitution, said they wanted to "escape" from prostitution (Farley, 2003: 1). Generally, they did not view prostitution as a "choice". In Farley's sample; 63 percent were sexually assaulted in childhood; 57 percent were physically abused as child; 46 percent were raped in prostitution; 47 percent were physically assaulted in prostitution and 71 percent were verbally abused in prostitution.
