From Cleveland.com, a story about Ohio’s Republican governor.

Excerpt:

Gov. John Kasich intends to sign wide-ranging legislation on Friday morning designed to crack down on sex trafficking in Ohio.

House Bill 130, which passed the legislature unanimously, increases penalties for those who solicit minors or the developmentally disabled, strengthens protections for victims, and makes it easier to prosecute human traffickers.

The state estimates that each year an estimated 1,078 Ohio children become victims of human trafficking and 3,016 more are at risk for exploitation.

Under the bill, which will take effect immediately, buying sex from a 16- or 17-year-old will now be a fifth-degree felony instead of a misdemeanor. Soliciting a younger child will be a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

The measure also terminates parental rights for those who have trafficked their children and prohibits sex ads that depict a minor or are for a massage parlor.

Kasich will sign the bill at 11 a.m. at the Ohio Department of Transportation headquarters in Columbus. Northeast Media Group staff writer Jeremy Pelzer will cover the event live in the comments section below.

I’m really not sure who could look at a child and think anything other than “this little human is made to know God, love God and love other people, so I will act in a way that helps them to do that, and does not not pull them away from that”. We’re not supposed to be hurting children, because children’s needs are more important than adult selfishness.

You know this story reminds me of one to the reasons why I am for marriage. I think that when a child is born into a home where his or her mother and father are presented and united in their obligation to love that child, then things like this do not happen. Sex-trafficking is something that happens to children who do not have a stable, loving environment to grow up in. But what are we doing to restrain ourselves to make sure that we do the things that we need to do to wrap sex in a layer of responsibility? Responsible sex doesn’t mean “safe” sex. It means sex that is contained inside the boundaries of a marriage and that any children who are produced are not seen as commodities, but as gifts that we are responsible for.