An Inhuman Industry: Responding to Sex Trafficking in Arizona

Posted on February 19, 2018 by Matt

Every year, from late January to mid-February, the city of Tucson hosts upward of 50,000 visitors, as the annual Gem, Mineral and Fossil Showcase — more commonly known as the Tucson Gem Show — draws exhibitors, traders, and tourists from around the globe. It is the biggest show of its kind, and the economic impact is considerable. This year’s show, which officially wrapped last week, was projected to bring $120 million in spending to local businesses.

Effective sex education arms young people with information about consent, negotiating proper boundaries, and forming healthy relationships.

In recent years, media coverage has also put the Gem Show in the spotlight for its alleged impact on an underground economy. The annual event has become a news hook for activists, victim advocates, and social workers who believe it serves as a boon to the nation’s $3 billion sex-trafficking industry.

Although the Arizona Republic rated the claim as “mostly false” when Martha McSally made it in 2015 — noting that evidence was mostly anecdotal — the idea that large events like the Gem Show lead to a spike in sex trafficking has remained a popular talking point. For example, at an awareness event last year, held shortly before the Gem Show’s kick-off, Tucson city council member Steve Kozachik commented, “Every time you have an outside event coming to any community, whether it be a sporting event or the gem show, the numbers of trafficking incidents spike.” He added, “That means the young in this community are vulnerable.”

Federal law defines sex trafficking as recruiting, harboring, transporting, or otherwise inducing a person to perform a commercial sex act against their will — or before they are legally old enough to consent. Last year, KGUN9 suggested that, during the show, as many as 100 women are “sold for sex” every night. The report, however, did not specify if it was referring to commercial sex as a whole or to trafficked sex exclusively — and whatever role the Gem Show plays in the trade is also a murky subject. Continue reading →

Illegal Procedure: How a 1974 Stadium Bill Put Reproductive Rights in the Sidelines

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Matt

Fans of the University of Arizona football team will arrive by the thousands at Arizona Stadium on September 3, the start of the fall football season, as the UA Wildcats face off against the UTSA Roadrunners, a team they defeated 26 to 23 in San Antonio last September. For fans, the stadium is a place where legends and losses are remembered. For reproductive rights advocates, it represents a devil’s bargain that took place more than 40 years ago and continues to compromise health care to this day.

In 1974, abortion rights were sacrificed to expand Arizona Stadium.

Arizona has long had a unique role in the abortion battle. In 1962, Sherri Finkbine, a Phoenix-area woman, entered the national spotlight after she found out the thalidomide she was taking as a sleep aid could cause severe fetal abnormalities. The early mortality rate among infants who were exposed to the drug was about 40 percent, in large part due to internal defects that commonly affected the kidneys, heart, digestive tract, and reproductive system.

Fearing how thalidomide would affect the development of her own fetus, Finkbine wanted to terminate her pregnancy in a state — and nation — that put legal barriers in the way of abortion. Already known to many as the star of a locally produced children’s show, she became a topic of national debate when she shared her story with a reporter from the Arizona Republic. She spoke to the reporter in the hopes of warning other mothers about thalidomide. An unintended consequence was that the publicity made it harder to quietly seek an abortion; providers who might have otherwise taken a legal risk for her couldn’t escape the attention that followed her. Continue reading →

One Vote Can Tip the Balance: The Battles for Reproductive Care

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Anna C.

David Yetman and Annette Everlove, 1977

For Kino Community Hospital, it was the end of abortion services. But for Annette Everlove it was the beginning of a career in law that continues to this day, and for David Yetman it was the beginning of his 12-year stint as a Pima County Supervisor. And for Americans, it was the beginning of a nationwide debate.

It was 1977, just four years after the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision. In the early days of abortion’s legality, access to the procedure was still extremely limited. There were only one or two private practitioners who provided abortion access in the entire city of Tucson.

And then there was Kino Community Hospital.

As a county-owned public hospital, Kino’s services were provided to its patients free of charge. Consequently, it was the sole source of medical care for many of Tucson’s poor. Shortly after Kino opened its doors in 1977, a Pima County Supervisor learned that the hospital was performing abortions. The question of whether or not Kino would be permitted to continue abortion services was put on the agenda. Continue reading →