Ending slavery even harder in today's world

Several weeks ago, while attending a convention, I walked down Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Amid the many colorful and deliberately irreverent signs I saw was one assuring all visitors that, "It's only sex."

Most of the people I saw there seemed to embrace that motto, viewing the seemingly limitless bounds of entertainment advertised along the street as harmless fun. But I kept thinking about how the nation's increasing acceptance of that motto would make it harder to root out slavery, which experts now say is the fastest growing crime in the United States.

I call it slavery, while the official language of the day prefers the term "human trafficking." As I told a high-ranking State Department official a few years ago during a discussion on the issue, that's a nuanced term that sounds too much like someone got a speeding ticket or made an illegal turn. When someone is trapped and forced to perform a task against his or her will for no pay beyond life's basic necessities, that is slavery.

And a nation that increasingly finds prostitution or its close cousin, illicit entertainment, harmless is going to have a tougher time noticing when girls are being shipped to this country against their will, or taken from this country to labor in the sex trade.

After all, it's just sex. Lighten up and quit moralizing.

Most Americans probably believe we ended slavery in the 1860s, but a recent State Department report calls it a $32 billion worldwide industry, and some experts say the problem now is far worse than it ever was in the 19th century.

The issue became relevant this week as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced it may sue the Obama administration for ending its funding of the church's efforts to help victims of slavery.

The administration says it simply awarded the money to the church's competitors in a normal bidding process. But an independent review board highly rated the Catholic Church, and staffers at the Department of Health and Human Services had recommended the grant remain with the church.

This is, as many have pointed out, actually a grudge match over abortion. The Catholic Church won't refer slavery victims for contraception or abortions. The ACLU sued, and the administration decided to go elsewhere.

But while Washington ties itself in knots over this peripheral issue, it hardly helps the many people who suffer silently, perhaps wondering why there is no underground railroad to come to their defense. Abortion is likely the least of their worries.