Prostitution, now a crime in France

Lawmakers from all parties represented in the National Assembly France's lower house will on Tuesday present the bill to outlaw prostitution said Guy Geoffroy of the ruling UMP party.

French lawmakers will next week test France's long history of liberal attitudes toward sex by introducing a bill outlawing prostitution.The head of the commission, Socialist lawmaker Danielle Bousquet, said it was expected to take several months to vote on the bill.Sex workers' groups denounced the proposal as an attack on their rights and this week protested in front of the National Assembly against the bill."Abolition and repression have never been the solution, all sociologists say so," a member of the Strass sex workers' group who gave her name only as Chloe said at the protest onTuesday.She said "feminists" should "stop speaking for us" and urged lawmakers to instead grant sex workers full legal status.
"We can pay our taxes but we have no social benefits in return. Some girls get 72.50 euros a month in pension after 40 years of contributing."An estimated 20,000 people work as prostitutes in France, with 80 per cent of them women and an estimated 99 per cent of clients men.