AUSTIN, Texas -- A new state law set to take effect in March aims to combat the crime by making sexually oriented businesses post human-trafficking hotline information in their bathrooms.
If such a business owner doesn't post the signs by March 1, the offense is considered a Class C misdemeanor. It also must be in English and Spanish.
“I think it’s huge,” said Allison Franklin with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition. “For me, I never saw any numbers or any posts, but had I seen that somewhere, on a billboard or a bus stop or in a bathroom, like hmm, maybe I should call this number in my most darkest moments.”
Franklin is an adult survivor of human trafficking.
“I was trafficked for eight and a half years. I was gang-trafficked in Texas,” she said.
Click the video link above to watch the full interview with Franklin including her push for more reforms to combat human trafficking.