> The part where they completely discredit themselves is where they (almost invariably) draw from this the conclusion that paying for sex work must be made illegal.
Agreed.
> If women turn to sex work as the only available means to survive, how exactly does it help them to take away that option?
Well I don't think the goal is to help them, I think the goal is to take away the ability for people to pay to rape them with legal cover. Like it's one thing for sex workers to be selling access to their bodies if it's under the table and illegal, even technically. It's quite another for the justice system of your particular country to go on the record and, in writing, state that you are allowed to coerce sex from another person in exchange for money. And like, again, I don't entirely disagree with that, if you accept the underlying logic that goes:
- Anything done for survival is coerced
- Sex work for survival is therefore coerced
- Sex during sex work done for survival is coerced sex
- Coerced sex is rape
- Therefore, no sex work done within a system where it is required for survival is consensual.
Like, there is a there there. It's uncomfortable but I can't argue it down. Making it illegal surely doesn't help them, but making it entirely legal means you are basically legalizing the ability for people with money to rape women who cannot say no, lest they starve to death. And like... that doesn't feel great either.