this is another one of those things where it's just a bit of a shrug.

in a truly free society, prostitution wouldn't exist. really, i'd go so far as to suggest that you can measure a society's level of oppression pretty well by observing how prevalent prostitution is. not how strict the laws are, but how often it happens. like wage work, prostitution is a type of slavery with invisible chains.

on the one hand, we think of this kind of work/slavery as being a little extreme. i mean, it's one thing to shovel ditches but to put out sexually? not everybody's going to see it like that. and the reality is that the higher price that can be demanded would, for some people, offset the discomfort. so long as we're forced into market relations on one level or another, it's arbitrary to restrict what kind of labour is allowed and what isn't. it follows that laws against prostitution are explicitly misogynist.

on top of that, there are reasons to think that decriminalization would lead to safer conditions. so we should be approaching this the same way we approach abortion, which is decriminalization followed by social programs designed to eliminate the conditions that lead to prostitution - poverty, drug addiction, lack of child support, etc.

ultimately, though, this isn't a solution to anything. the solution lies in the programs designed to minimize the prevalence of prostitution.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/feminist-current/2013/12/supreme-court-canada-to-make-decision-on-prostitution-law-de