Brad Mattes is the president and CEO of Life Issues Institute headquartered in Cincinnati. Their mission is that of assuring, through education, equal protection under the law for all living humans from the beginning of their biological life at fertilization until natural death.
According to Brad, human trafficking is happening all over. The number of victims is hard to come by, but he's guessing millions are involved in this 'industry', one that is second only to the drug trade.
Monetarily speaking, one person who has a stable of girls (or boys) will generate over $350,000 in a year. Replicate that in communities both large and small all across American and you have an idea of just how much total money is involved.
Individuals recruiting these youngsters will sit at places such as malls. The target victims are young girls (and boys) who may be alone, estranged from their parents or dabbling in drugs. The average age for girls is between 12 and 14. For boys it's between 11 and 13 In fact, one out of every 3 kids who run away from home will be approached within 48 hours by a human trafficker.
Is there any correlation between sex trafficking and prostitution? According to Brad, the two are basically the same. The difference is that where you have trafficking, it's against the will of the victims who are being marketed.
Brad believes social media plays the major role in identifying, locating and either recruiting or stealing children into the trafficking industry. Those who use social media most effectively are monitoring what your children are doing online. It's so important that parents are aware of what their children are doing online because kids often share a lot of personal information through the Internet. This makes them an easy target for the pimps and dealers that engage in human trafficking.
Those purchasing young girls and boys cross all lines of society: white collar, blue collar, politicians, doctors, attorneys, truck drivers, mechanics and sadly, even pastors. Brad described a situation in Toledo, Ohio, where 3 pastors were arrested for buying the services of trafficked victims.
Brad believes it's absolutely essential to human trafficking to have abortion on demand. Life Issues Institute has observed from watching undercover videos of Planned Parenthood where the staff has participated with people posing as pimps involved in human trafficking. After all, when you have someone sold time and time again for sexual activity, pregnancies will occur. However, Planned Parenthood doesn't care what these individuals get treated for or if they get abortions. The traffickers know Planned Parenthood isn't going to report them despite the danger these young people are in.
There's much more to learn on this Crosstalk including:
--Traffickers posing as parents/legal guardians so that girls can get abortions.
--The connection between major sporting events and human trafficking.
--Why it's difficult for girls to leave this industry.
--Why gangs are now running girls.
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