By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD – Those who engage in prostitution as a patron will pay a mandatory $500 fine under Senate Bill 267-FN and that money would go into a survivors’ fund under a bill heard Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

There was no opposition to the bill and many survivors who have turned to helping others spoke in support of the bill, which is sponsored by Democrat Donovan Fenton, D-Keene.

If passed it would become effective Jan. 1, 2026.

Prostitution is illegal under New Hampshire law and in all states but Nevada.

There have been several attempts in the State House to decriminalize sex work which have all failed.

NH RSA 645:2 states it is a misdemeanor to solicit sex for compensation. In 2021 former Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law protections for victims of sex trafficking from prosecution.

Fenton said this is about strengthening efforts to fight exploitation and human trafficking in the granite state.

First, this could act as a stronger deterrent and provide critical resources for those who have been exploited, he said.

“We have a responsibility to provide proactive steps,” Fenton said.

There is an established victims assistance fund, he said, but criminal penalties now are not directed to a victims fund.

Tricia Grant, a survivor of being trafficked in New Hampshire at age 15 and now working for Just Love Worldwide in Maine, spoke in support of the bill.

“It is a concrete step,” she said of the bill.

Abby Fabiaschi, on behalf of the Empower Network, said this would be an improvement where funds to help victims get out of the business and recover are scarce. Trafficking works a million different ways but not often the way it is portrayed in the media, she said.

There are currently wait lists of survivors in every Empower Network, she said.

She said 13 is the average age girls start to be trafficked in the United States. 

“Imagine someone burning your birth certificate and saying they own you,” she said.

Audra Doody of Worcester, Massachusetts’ Safe Exit Initiative who is a survivor of the sex trade, said she was trafficked in New Hampshire.

 Individuals approached her, she said, including a manager at work and after her first “date” “I felt so disgusting and dirty.”

She found that buyers broke rules and to this day she still has nightmares and struggles to find healthy relationships.

Dr. Stacy Reed, a professional in survival strategy, said there is an urgent need for the bill and its funding.

She said those who pay for sex are fueling a system of suffering.

Buyers are overwhelmingly men who are wealthy while the women are usually poor.

“Sex buyers are not unaware of the harm they cause,” she said.

The need for funding survivor services is urgent, she said, and can make a tangible difference.

Ashley Staggers, policy associate of Rights4Girls, also spoke in support of the bill.

She said studies show consequences for sex buyers are minimal and many sentences were suspended.

Prostituted women are subjected to violence and suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Alisa Bernard, deputy director of World Without Exploitation, spoke in support of the bill. She said SB 267 has been implemented in other states “and it works.”