Martina Moyski reports for ChurchMilitant.com: A former abortionist and teen prostitution advocate has taken a top post at the United Nations (U.N.).
South African doctor Tlaleng Mofokeng, often referred to as Dr. T, was recently named Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. Mofokeng is the host of the South African TV show Sex Talk with Dr. T and author of Dr. T: Guide To Sexual Health and Pleasure.
Acting in her new position, she is poised and expected to give impetus to the decriminalization of the sex trade across the globe, according to the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam), an organization whose mission is devoted to defending life and family at international institutions.
Mofokeng has written:
I believe sex work and sex worker rights are women’s rights, health rights, labor rights and the litmus test for intersectional feminism. The idea of purchasing intimacy and paying for the services can be affirming for many people who need human connection, friendship and emotional support. Some people may have fantasies and kink preferences that they are able to fulfill with the services of a sex worker. The clients who seek sex workers vary, and they’re not just men.
Stefano Gennarini, J.D., vice president for the Center for Legal Studies at C-Fam, spoke to Church Militant Monday regarding the role Mofokeng is playing to advance the leftist agenda.
‘Groomed’ to Push Unfettered Sex
Mofokeng is “a doctor groomed by the international sexual and reproductive health establishment to advocate for unfettered sexual autonomy, including legal prostitution, homosexuality, abortion and children’s sexual autonomy,” Gennarini said.
Aren’t I a sex worker? And in some ways, aren’t we all?Tweet
“The best lens to understand her appointment is through a culture war lens,” he explained. “Mofokeng was chosen by Nordic and European countries to wage the culture war and promote the sexual agenda in Africa.” He added:
To date, Mofokeng has no noteworthy accomplishments in the medical field or in the human rights law. Dr. Mofokeng’s only achievements are running an abortion clinic and hosting an edgy TV program called Sex Talk With Dr. T, which promotes a curious mixture of bad sexual health advice and cringeworthy attempts to normalize sexual perversion. Her selection is to maximize the reach and media effect of the sexual revolution in the region.
Mofokeng is famous for “Why Sex Work is Real Work,” a controversial essay she penned in Teen Vogue in 2019 which encourages young readers to consider sex work.
“If you support women’s rights, I urge you to support the global demand for sex work decriminalization and fund evidence- and rights-based intersectional programs aimed at sex workers and their clients,” she told her adolescent audience.
She conflated being a medical doctor with being a sex worker. “I am a doctor, an expert in sexual health, but when you think about it, aren’t I a sex worker? And in some ways, aren’t we all?” Mofokeng asked her young Teen Vogue readers.
Pressing the comparison she asked, “I exchange payment in the form of money with people to provide them with advice and treatment for sex-related problems, therapy for sexual performance, counseling and therapy for relationship problems and treatment of sexually transmitted infection. Isn’t this basically sex work?”
Attempting to sanitize sex work, she pointed to the array of benign-sounding services provided.
“Not all sex workers engage in penetrative sex, though, undeniably, that is a big part of sex work. Sex-worker services between consenting adults may include companionship, intimacy, nonsexual role playing, dancing, escorting and stripping,” she reminded Teen Vogue readers.
Anti-Traffickers ‘Shocked’
The anti-sex trafficking community is “shocked” by Mofokeng’s appointment, Gennarini said, explaining:
They have just come off a multi-year campaign to get UN Women, the U.N. superagency for women, to back away from being in favor of legal prostitution. They were successful in getting them to adopt a position of neutrality. But now the U.N. human rights expert on health is an unabashed advocate for legal teen prostitution.
Lisa Correnti, in “Advocate for Teen Prostitution Takes Top UN Post” in a C-Fam publication, pointed to specific anti-sex trafficking groups and individuals that have pushed back against the appointment.
(Photo: Ralph Palumbo)
Deidre Pujols, cofounder of Strike Out Slavery, an organization taking action against modern-day sex slavery, nixes the argument that decriminalization of sex means safer societies.
“Many claim if the sex trade were legal, regulated and treated like any other profession, it would be safer,” she argued. “But research suggests otherwise. Countries that have legalized or decriminalized commercial sex often experience a surge in human trafficking, pimping and other related crimes.”
“The idea that legalizing or decriminalizing commercial sex would reduce its harms is a persistent myth,” Pujols said summarily.
Haley McNamara, vice president for the U.K.-based International Center on Sexual Exploitation (ICOSE), made similar remarks speaking for the Friday Fax, a C-Fam weekly that reports on U.N.-related news.
Sex buyers do not view the women they purchase as individuals worthy of respect, but instead as subhuman objects to use,” she said, citing a study that found 75% of women in prostitution reported they were raped by sex buyers.
Survivor Urges New Viewpoint
Jewell Baraka, a survivor of sexual exploitation with Exodus Cry appealed to Mofokeng to reconsider her views on prostitution.
“If Dr. Mofokeng had actually experienced the realities of daily repeated rape she would not be idealistically promoting it to teenage girls,” Baraka said.
“Violence of sex buyers is not eradicated by a choice, and those that do choose it completely of their own volition are rare. Most survivors do not tell a story of choice, but of force, fraud and coercion that landed them in prostitution and kept them from leaving,” the Exodus Cry spokesperson added.
Gennarini said that human rights “experts” like Mofokeng are appointed by member states. He explained that:
They are rarely, if ever, vetted by all the members, especially those who give less to the system. Their selection is usually the result of lobbying by donor governments from Nordic countries and European powers like Germany and France. Most governments simply go along, either because of complacency, lack of capacity or just the naïve hope that everyone acts in good faith.
But he noted, this approach may ultimately backfire, saying, “The radical choice [of] Mofokeng is a reminder that if the U.N. human rights system is not reformed it will utterly discredit and debase itself.