NEW YORK – Today, the United States Senate failed to advance current pending legislation that was meant to combat human trafficking and provide support for trafficking survivors. The bill was sabotaged by language that was included to restrict trafficking survivors’ access to reproductive health care. The Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative/Masorti rabbis, commended this move to not move forward at this time with legislation that would restrict a survivor’s access to healthcare.
“Thousands of American citizens, legal immigrants, and temporary and undocumented workers have been trafficked within our nation’s borders,” said Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly and member of President Obama’s White House Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which has worked to combat human trafficking. “As we approach Passover and recognize the Jewish people’s liberation from bondage, we bear witnesses to modern day slavery. We must provide support for survivors and do all that we can to end these great injustices.”
“The Rabbinical Assembly has long stood in support of reproductive freedom,” Schonfeld continued. “New provisions introduced to the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act have created unnecessary roadblocks to legislation that in the past has received overwhelming support in both chambers of Congress. We applaud the Senate’s choice to not move forward with the bill because, as it stands now, it would greatly restrict the reproductive freedoms of survivors of human trafficking. We support the passage of a clean anti-human trafficking bill and encourage all members of Congress to come together in support of all these victims in their time of need.”