Innocence Stolen Twice: Why I fight for trafficking victims and their unborn children

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this guest post are solely those of the author.

My heart aches every time I have this conversation.

I sit across from survivors of trafficking whose stories of abuse and exploitation began before the age of 12. Children who were sold for sex. Sold to those who had no care in the world for them. And in those conversations, I hear something that breaks me every single time: the dreams they held onto even in their darkest moments, and the babies that were taken from them before they ever had a chance.

One survivor told me something I will never forget: "I remember dreaming of being a mother someday, of loving and holding my babies, all the while underneath a man who didn't care that I was one."

This is the reality we must face when we talk about human trafficking. It's not just about the exploitation we can see.

It's about the layers of violence, the compounding trauma, the innocence stolen not once, but twice: first from the child being trafficked, and then from the child growing inside her that she's never allowed to protect.

The Betrayal That Begins at Home

Here's what makes this even harder to comprehend: More than 40% of child trafficking victims are first trafficked by a family member.

The very people who should have protected them were the ones who sold them. Not strangers in vans. Not faceless predators online. Family. Mothers. Fathers. Sisters. Aunts. 

We need to shatter the myth that traffickers are always men, always strangers, always the obvious villain. Women are traffickers, too. Mothers traffick their own children. And when that child becomes pregnant from the abuse, those same family members are often the ones forcing or coercing the abortion, eliminating the evidence, maintaining the cycle, protecting their income stream.

Two Victims, One Crime

I've served child trafficking victims who have recounted abortions forced on them by their abusers. Not abortions they chose. Not abortions they wanted. Abortions demanded by traffickers who saw pregnancy as bad for business. 

These girls are told their bodies don't belong to them. They're told they have no choice, no voice, no value beyond what someone will pay for access to them.

And then, when a life begins inside them, they're told that life has no value either.

The coercion doesn't end with sexual exploitation. It extends to reproductive control. Traffickers, whether they're strangers, intimate partners, or family members, use abortion as a tool of continued abuse, a way to maintain control, eliminate evidence, and keep their victims available for exploitation.

Think about what that means.

A 13-year-old girl, already being sold for sex multiple times a day by men her own mother brings to the house, becomes pregnant. Does she have the freedom to choose what happens next? Does anyone ask her if she's safe, if this is what she wants, if the woman who brought her is the one profiting from her abuse?

Or is she simply handed paperwork, given a procedure, and sent back into the same hell she came from with no one the wiser?

The Female Face of Trafficking

Female traffickers often have greater access to vulnerable children. They're trusted more easily. They fly under the radar of law enforcement who are looking for male predators. A woman taking a teenage girl to a clinic doesn't raise red flags the way a man might. A mother signing consent forms for her daughter's abortion doesn't trigger the same scrutiny.

I've seen cases where female traffickers, former victims themselves who became perpetrators, were especially brutal in enforcing abortions. They knew the system. They knew how to coach the victim on what to say. They knew how to make sure no questions were asked.

And family member traffickers? They have the ultimate leverage. When that pregnant 14-year-old is trafficked by her own mother, who is she supposed to tell? Who will believe her?

Every Life Has Value

I believe every person has inherent dignity, value, and worth. Not because of what they can do, not because of their circumstances, not because they're wanted or convenient, but simply because they exist. And that belief starts at conception.

I think about one young woman who was pregnant and knew her trafficker wanted her to abort the baby. Instead of going to the abortion clinic as she'd been instructed, she bravely walked into a pregnancy help organization. There, she disclosed what was happening to her and asked for help. That moment of courage, that choice to protect her child and seek freedom, changed everything. She chose life for her baby and life for herself.

But I think about how easily that story could have ended differently.

What if that pregnancy center hadn't been there? What if she'd been too afraid? What if her trafficker had accompanied her to ensure she went through with the abortion?

Why I Fight

I fight because somewhere right now, there's a little girl dreaming of loving and protecting her children, all while being hurt. 

I want to live in a world where we protect her dream, where we fight for her freedom, and where we recognize that the life inside her is just as precious as her own, no matter who her trafficker is, no matter what their relationship, no matter their gender.

Both lives matter. Both deserve our fierce protection. Both deserve a chance.

Every child deserves childhood. Every person deserves dignity. Every life deserves a chance. No exceptions.

Bio: Kristi Wells is the CEO and Co-Founder of Safe House Project, a national anti-trafficking organization uniting communities to see trafficking eradicated in the United States. Safe House Project leads advocacy efforts at the federal level and has served over 5,000 trafficking survivors since 2017.