No Choice: Sex Trafficking
More people are enslaved today than any other time in human history. An estimated 40.3 million people, including children and young adults, are trafficked worldwide each year.(1)
It is common for women to experience coerced or even forced abortions, particularly those being trafficked and victims of incest. A groundbreaking study revealed 55.2% of women in the study had at least one abortion while being trafficked, and 29.9% had multiple abortions.(2) Widely accessible mifepristone (the abortion pill) puts women at a much greater risk to predators, all while making it easier for these people to exert greater control over them and avoid being detected and reported by healthcare workers.(3)
According to the Lozier Institute, “with no medical oversight, abortion pills can fall into the hands of traffickers and abusive partners. Already, there are accounts of women being given abortion pills without their knowledge and against their will. The risk of forced abortions has increased now that the pills are available online without an in-person visit with the woman’s doctor.”(4)
On December 6th, 2024, a man in Norfolk, England, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for intentionally inducing an abortion by giving a woman a combination of Mifepristone and Misoprostol without her knowledge or consent.(5) And this is not an isolated incident. Even before the FDA REMS changed in 2023, there have been several similar cases in the United States.
For help or to report, visit: a21.org/content/human-trafficking
Traffickers prey on young homeless or runaways at transportation hubs, motels, and shopping malls. Additionally, they lure potential victims through the internet, social media, online games, or use other victims to recruit. Traffickers convince their victims they will be employed overseas as a nanny or become the next big model sensation, then take them by force to be sold.
“In a 2003 survey, 49% of people ‘currently or recently in prostitution’ reported that their traffickers made pornographic material of them while they were engaged in prostitution.”(6) Since these materials are posted on the internet, the victims feel they cannot escape that experience because they are revictimized every time someone views those materials.(7)
Factors that make a person more vulnerable:
• Disabilities
• Poverty
• Lack of family support
• History of abuse
• Age
• Drug or alcohol addiction
• Criminal record
• Homelessness
• Gang involvement
• Forced abortions
Signs that someone
may be a victim:
• Feels unable to leave relationship with trafficker
• Forced to do uncomfortable
things
• Expected to have sex for money or valuables
• Traffickers keep victim’s money or items earned through sex
Techniques used to
keep victims:
• Threaten victim or family member
• Withhold identification documents
• Cause and exploit pregnancies
• Force prostitution for debt repayment
• Provide drugs or alcohol to create dependency
• Blackmail through pornography
Negative effects of
being trafficked:
• Emotional and physical abuse
• Forced abortions
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Doxing (publishing of private content online)
• Malnutrition and sleep deprivation
• Contraction of STIs, Hepatitis B & C, and AIDS
Want to know more about your state? Visit Human Trafficking Hotline website at the address below to see what your local numbers reveal. Keep in mind these are only the victims who have been helped or the traffickers who have been caught. humantraffickinghotline.org/en/statistics
Sources
(1) “Human Trafficking Statistics and Facts In 2024.” Our Rescue, 12 January 2024. https://ourrescue.org/education/research-and-trends/human-trafficking-statistics. Accessed 31 July 2025.
(2) Lederer, Laura J. and Christopher A. Wetzel. “Health Consequences of Sex Trafficking.” Annals of Health Law, Vol. 23, 2014, pp. 61-91. https://www.globalcenturion.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/The-Health-Consequences-of-Sex-Trafficking.pdf. Accessed 1 August 2025.
(3) Reardon, David C., Ph.D., et al. “Overlooked Dangers of Mifepristone, the FDA’s Reduced REMS, and Self-Managed Abortion Policies: Unwanted Abortions, Unnecessary Abortions, Unsafe Abortions.” Lozier Institute, 16 December 2021 https://lozierinstitute.org/overlooked-dangers-of-mifepristone-the-fdas-reduced-rems-and-self-managed-abortion-policies-unwanted-abortions-unnecessary-abortions-unsafe-abortions/. Accessed 25 August 2025.
(4) “Abortion Drug Facts: Risk to Women.” Lozier Institute. https://lozierinstitute.org/abortion-drug-facts/#risk-to-women. Accessed 23 July 2024.
(5) Worden, Clare. “Man jailed for poisoning woman with abortion drugs.” BBC News, 6 December 2024. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cje0p1dlzleo?fbclid=IwY2xjawHzdlxleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHcVwYuU360YrFRjbEkL42gDfH0loBYyEQDbLbCy2EcU9fsbOPyi4AeCagA_aem_XHf-kOOGiSVeOXOyU5EIXA. Accessed 1 August 2025.
(6) Melissa Farley et al. “Prostitution and Trafficking in Nine Countries: An Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.” Journal of Trauma Practice, vol. 2, no. 2-3, 2003, pp. 33-74. Reference in Luzwick, L. J. “Human trafficking and pornography: Using the trafficking victims protection act to prosecute trafficking for the production of internet pornography.” Northwestern University Law Review, vol. 3, 2017, pp. 137-153. https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1244&context=nulr_online. Accessed 4 August 2025.
(7) Ibid.