Failing to address climate change could drive women into prostitution, said 13 House Democrats who signed a resolution saying women are affected more negatively than men by the dramatic weather shifts.
The claim comes from the argument that climate change hampers farmers and that most farmers in developing countries are female, Newser reported.
Rep. Barbara Lee, California Democrat, said in The Hill that “food insecure women with limited socioeconomic resources may be vulnerable to situations such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage that put them at risk for HIV, STIs, unplanned pregnancy and poor reproductive health.”
Moreover, climate change could turn entire populations into refugees — again, affecting women the most, the resolution suggested, as Newser reported.
Hurricane Katrina, after all, displaced “over 83 percent of [the area’s] low-income, single mothers,” the resolution said, as Newser reported. Congress, therefore, should use “gender-specific frameworks in developing policies to address climate change,” the resolution advised.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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