McCain Pushes Priorities That Resonate on the Right

By Elisabeth Bumiller - New York Times
Thursday, May 08, 2008 - Web Link
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May 8, 2008

ROCHESTER, Mich. — Senator John McCain appealed to religious conservatives on Wednesday with pledges to prosecute sex traffickers, fight Internet child pornography and make religious freedom a priority in American diplomacy.

n a speech followed by tough questions from the audience about the war in Iraq and his temper, Mr. McCain said that those issues, particularly the fight against sex trafficking, would be important in his White House.

“Most of the victims of human trafficking in the United States and in most other places in the world are the most vulnerable among us, destitute women and children who are sold into bondage as sex slaves,” Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, told a crowd at Oakland University here. Later he added, “We must view this evil form of 21st-century slavery every bit as important as drug trafficking.”

Human trafficking, the transport of victims under false pretenses from one nation to another for forced labor or prostitution, has become an important issue to the Christian right. The Central Intelligence Agency estimates that as many as 800,000 people around the world, including 200,000 in the United States, are enslaved each year.