Sex trafficking, reproductive rights, and sovereign borders

a transnational struggle over women's bodies

Diana Tietjens Meyers

pp. 167-182

in: Clara Fischer, Luna Dolezal (eds), New feminist perspectives on embodiment, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to draw attention to an overlooked dimension of sex trafficking—namely, its abuse of women's reproductive rights; to diagnose a tension between international anti-trafficking and refugee law and US anti-trafficking and immigration law; and to show that US anti-trafficking and immigration law is enforcing a misguided conception of victims that denies recognition to agentic victims of human rights abuse. Although women who have been trafficked into sex work should be prime candidates for legal protection, they aren't. Criminal and legal practices amount to a three-way struggle over women's bodily integrity and autonomy. Because misconceptions about victimhood perpetuate this cyclical struggle, I argue for legal reforms based on a credible conception of victimhood.