https://www.albaparty.org/regan_lodges_unbuyable_bill
'Ash Regan MSP has today [Tuesday 20 May] formally lodged her Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill—known as the Unbuyable Bill—in the Scottish Parliament.
The Bill proposes a bold and long-overdue step towards ending the commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls in Scotland. It will criminalise the purchase of sex, repeal outdated offences that target the seller, quash historic convictions, and create a statutory right to support for those in and exiting prostitution.
Speaking ahead of the Bill's formal introduction, Alba Party’s Ash Regan MSP said:
"Prostitution is not a job like any other, as some lobby groups claim; it is a system of commercial sexual exploitation that targets the vulnerable, is driven by demand and is enabled by silence. Commodifying human beings has consequences - it's time we reframe the shame.
"Today, I am proud to bring commercial sexual exploitation out of the shadows into a debate across Scotland, by formally lodging the Unbuyable Bill in Parliament. Unbuyable is the first key step in tackling attitudes that have shamefully normalised inequality of the sexes and underpinned the scourge of male violence against women
"It is a Bill forged by those who have survived the system of exploitation, for their own recovery and for those still trapped inside or vulnerable to such exploitation. It recognises what so many are afraid to say: that buying sexual access to a human being is a form of male violence.
"We must reframe shame. It does not belong to exploited women and men—it belongs to the men who buy them."
"The Bill aligns with the Nordic Model— adopted in countries such as Sweden, Norway, France, and Ireland—and marks a departure from the failed approach of decriminalising the sex trade, without addressing the root cause and consequences of commodifying human beings: demand."'