State lawmakers say they are planning to introduce legislation this week in Illinois that would make it the first state in America to decriminalize sex work statewide. 

The bill, sponsored by State Representative Will Guzzardi and State Senator Celina Villanueva, both Democrats, would remove criminal penalties for adults engaging in consensual sex work, remove arrest and conviction records for sex workers charged in the past and establish a sex workers’ bill of rights. 

The measure follows a years-long effort headed by an Illinois-based coalition of current and former sex workers, known as the Sex Worker Advisory Group, along with a social justice advocacy group, Equality Illinois.

The organizations argue that legalizing prostitution would make the business safer by allowing sex workers to meet clients in safer environments and allow them to report crimes committed against them without fear of police retaliation. 

“For 20 years, I worked as a sex worker here in the city of Chicago and for over 20 years I lived under the fear and threat of violence,” the Sex Worker Advisory Group’s chairwoman, Reyna Ortiz, said during a press conference on Monday. “By passing this legislation, we will make Illinois a safer place for everyone, especially the most vulnerable in our communities.”

After Illinois reduced prostitution to a misdemeanor in 2013, arrests and prosecutions of sex-related offenses have dropped by 97 percent, Equality Illinois reports. Sex workers are still forced to “operate in the shadows,” however, says the chief executive of Equality Illinois, Brian Johnson.

Prostitution remains illegal in the majority of American territory, although it is fully legal in some counties of Nevada, and Maine enacted a law in 2023 that decriminalized offering sex for cash but not the purchase of sex. 

The bill’s sponsors plan to formally introduce the legislation this week, though the specifics of the bill, including how it would be enacted and regulation, are still unclear. The proposal follows the recent passing of another state measure, also backed by Mr. Guzzardi, to replace the word “prostitute” in state statutes with “person engaged in the sex trade.” 

Not everyone was on board with the effort, however. David Smith, the executive director of a bible-based public policy advocacy group, the Illinois Family Institute, called on lawmakers to “not sanitize it.” He continued: “What are we talking about here, legalizing brothels throughout the city of Chicago, throughout the state of Illinois? Is that what our Main Streets are going to look like — the weed shop next to the brothel next to the mini casino? This is the new wave of Illinois?”