Decriminalization is not legalization. It does not mean state licensing or government-run brothels. It means removing criminal penalties from consenting adults who buy and sell sexual services, so they can access healthcare, report violence, and go to the police when they are victimized, without fear of arrest.

Criminalization does not stop the sex trade. It drives it underground, where workers cannot screen dangerous clients, cannot report assault, and cannot access basic healthcare without risking prosecution. In 2018, Congress passed FOSTA, a law that made websites liable for content related to sex work. Federal investigators later found FOSTA was never used to prosecute a single sex trafficking case. Instead, it took away the online tools sex workers used to screen clients and share warnings about violent ones, and violence against sex workers increased as a direct result.

Decriminalization and anti-trafficking enforcement are not the same fight, and treating them as one has made trafficking victims harder to identify, not easier. Lydia will push to repeal FOSTA, decriminalize consensual sex work between adults, and direct federal resources toward what actually stops trafficking: going after traffickers and exploiters, not consenting adults.

This does not extend to the exploitation of minors, which is a separate crime and remains prosecuted as such under existing federal law.