Just The Tip: This States DEMOCRATIC Governor Signs Law Partially Decriminalizing The Worlds Oldest Profession

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Lois Reckitt, D-South Portland, eliminates the crime of engaging in prostitution.

It also elevates the crime of soliciting a child for commercial sexual exploitation from a misdemeanor to a felony with a maximum punishment of five years in state prison. Supporters of the measure say that it protects the most vulnerable while still targeting those who exploit them.

Reckitt, who is the longtime director of Family Crisis Services in Portland and an advocate for women suffering from domestic abuse, said that the bill will help people who are pushed into sex trafficking by desperate circumstances. She joined Governor Mills for the bill-signing ceremony two years after the governor vetoed a similar bill.

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"We are long overdue to better protect and decriminalize sellers engaged in prostitution without legalizing pimping and sex buying," Reckitt said in a statement.

The majority of those sold in prostitution come from marginalized communities and experience long-term trauma, according to the proposal’s supporters. Lauren Hersh, national director of World Without Exploitation, said that Maine is leading the way to ending the criminalization of survivors while holding "perpetrators accountable for the devastating harm they cause."

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Tricia Grant, a survivor of sexual exploitation in Maine, said that she was proud of the state for adopting the law.

"This legislation is firmly rooted in anti-trafficking and acknowledges that arresting and revictimizing people for their own exploitation is not the solution. Rather, holding the exploiters and abusers accountable is the answer," she said.