In the nation's fifth highest state for human trafficking, where the Democratic Party currently holds veto-proof supermajorities, Senator Shannon Grove (R) introduced a bill (SB 1414) in February to make it a felony to buy a child for sex. Anyone convicted would have faced up to four years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000.
But last week, Democrats watered down her proposal with amendments dropping the chance of prison time to a maximum of one year in jail and reducing the charges to a misdemeanor if the trafficked child is 16 or 17 years old. An amendment removing the requirement that the buyer register as a sex offender was also approved.
The Senate Public Safety Committee passed those changes without Sen. Grove's approval.
"SB 1414 … states that anyone who solicits or engages in solicitation of a minor child for commercial sex will face a felony; today, that's a misdemeanor," Grove lamented at a press conference.
She says she and the trafficking survivors who were present when the Democrats revealed they had made it easier for criminals to get away with such a serious crime were "shocked at what was happening."
During the press conference, Vanessa Russell of Love Never Fails, an organization committed to all youth's well-being and driven to restore education and protect them from sex trafficking, made the situation abundantly clear; in California, it is a felony to rape a child.
"Penal Code 261 states that raping a child under 14 is punishable by 9-14 years, and raping a child 14-18 is punishable by 7-17 years in prison," she relayed. "Why are children who are being sold multiple times a day not worth the same convictions and protections?"
So, if the watered-down version of Sen. Shannon's proposal is approved, most people caught paying a trafficked minor for sex will get no jail time and will only pay a small fine.
The bill faces another committee vote before heading to the Senate floor.
In Tennessee, Republican Representative William Lamberth's stand-alone HB 1663 has passed. It gives child rapists no safe space in the state and allows the death penalty for any offenders.
Worthy of note is the fact that every pro-abortion Democrat voted against the measure there, with Rep. Aftyn Behn (D), who boasts an endorsement from Planned Parenthood, calling it "incompatible with the right to life."
But despite their opposition, the measure now goes to Governor Bill Lee (R) to be signed into law.
Alabama is likewise cracking down on human traffickers. Now that Gov. Kay Ivey (R) has signed the "Sound of Freedom Act" into law, people convicted of trafficking minors will automatically be sentenced to life in prison. The nation's toughest punishment for anyone found guilty of first-degree human trafficking of a minor goes into effect October 1st.
Under previous law, trafficking children was a Class A felony, punishable by 20 years to life in prison.
