Status of Women committee  Poverty and the explosion, yes. When I started to look into this issue to write The Natashas, what I looked at was the fall of the Iron Curtain and the fall of the Berlin Wall in East Germany. The social safety net in Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, and all of those former Soviet countries is completely shattered; there's nothing left.

Status of Women committee  Much of what I talk about on the legalization question is when I started to look at trafficking around the world of these young women and girls. I kept trying to figure out what was wrong. It is that we are going after these nations that are totally impoverished. These girls have nothing, these young women have nothing for them, and they are prime targets for traffickers.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. I want to thank you for inviting me. I think this is a very important issue. I know it's a very important issue, and I'm going to zero in on what I think is something that has to be dealt with. Over the past decade, alarm bells have been set off around the globe about a human rights disaster of epic proportions—that is, the wholesale trafficking of women and children into the worldwide sex trade.