Ash Regan has said she will not allow the issue of prostitution to fall “into the shadows” — accusing other politicians of being “more than happy” to ignore it.
In an interview with The Herald, the Alba MSP said many of her colleagues were unwilling to engage with the debate.
"Prostitution is something that a lot of politicians do not want to engage with. They are more than happy for this to be in the shadows," Ms Regan said.
"I think for some people this is not an easy conversation to have."
Ms Regan believes many MSPs do not want to deal with "difficult or challenging" policy.
"They think this is something that has always happened and always will happen. Well, I do not agree with that," she said. "What is the point of being in politics if you cannot be ambitious for your country?"
Her comments follow claims in the Daily Record by a former prostitute who said currently serving parliamentarians had paid her for sex.
Ms Regan's Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill aims to criminalise the buying of sex in Scotland while decriminalising those selling sexual services.
As it stands, paying for sex is not illegal in Scotland, however some activities often connected to prostitution — such as running a brothel, loitering in a public place to buy or sell sex, or persuading someone to take up prostitution — are against the law.
Ms Regan told The Herald her aim is to make sex-trafficking "virtually non-existent" in Scotland through this new bill.
"The data that we have shows that in Sweden [where prostitution is illegal], prostitution has reduced to a very low level," she said.
"It has not extinguished it completely but it has reduced it to a very low level. But fundamentally, sex trafficking is almost non-existent in Sweden, if not non-existent.
"Surely, that is a goal that we should be striving for and that is what I am looking to achieve for Scotland."
Ms Regan added: "Let us face it, women in Scotland have not had a good time under this Government lately, so this is something they could do which would be very helpful in that regard."
Ms Regan believes her proposals - based on the Nordic model of targeting sex buyers -will shift the blame from those involved in prostitution to those seeking it out.
This model is currently in effect in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, France, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Canada and Israel.
The MSP believes this approach would quash historic convictions and create a statutory right to support for those in and exiting prostitution.
However, not everyone in Holyrood and beyond agrees with Ms Regan and the topic of prostitution is incredibly divisive.
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Groups such as Scotland for Decrim, a campaign fighting for the full decriminalisation of sex work in Scotland, believe there are significant safety concerns around her bill.
Laura Baillie, the group's political officer, said: "Regan's bill does not take away the fundamental structures in society that lead people to go into sex work.
"Prostitution has been around because of the economic exploitation of women. If we really want to combat that, what we want to see are better anti-poverty measures.
"Both the current system and the Nordic model are dangerous and they actually help exploitation. It creates an unregulated system."
The Alba MSP disputed this.
Asked about concerns her bill could drive prostitution to an unregulated and underground system, Ms Regan said: "There is no basis for any of those assertions.
"If you even think for one second, you cannot possibly drive prostitution underground.
"If you had a lot of women in underground cellars with a locked door, how would the punters get to them?"
The Herald clarified that the point being made was that if someone wants to buy sex, they would simply do so illegally.
Asked if that made sense, Ms Regan said: "No. It does not really make sense whatsoever."
Ms Regan said: "There just is not any way to make it safe, so this is why I am suggesting that we change the law in order to shrink the market down as much as possible and put the shame onto the punters."
She went on to say that in Germany there have been 99 murders of women in prostitution since 2002, whereas in Sweden, where prostitution is illegal, there have been no murders.
She said she had heard of illegal brothels in Germany where "they were finding women in dumpsters out the back of some of these brothels".
"This is really serious violence against women," Ms Regan stressed.
Yet supporters of decriminalisation point to Northern Ireland, where reported assaults against those involved in prostitution increased by 225% from 2016 to 2018 since criminalisation of purchasing sex was introduced in 2015.
These groups also point to New Zealand and states in Australia where prostitution has been made legal and rates of violence against those in prostitution have dropped.
Supporters of the proposals include Fiona Broadfoot, chief executive of Build A Girl UK, who was in prostitution from the age of 15 two decades ago.
She was subjected to what she described as the sex trade in saunas in Edinburgh in her early twenties.
At the official launch of the bill at Holyrood, she told those in attendance: "Every day, I thought I would be murdered. Every day I experienced rape by ordinary men whose lives were not impacted for one second like the women and girls they used."
MSPs such as Labour's Rhoda Grant, who is holding a debate on combating commercial sexual exploitation in Holyrood this week, is backing the proposals.
More than ten years ago, she brought forward similar legislation to Ms Regan, however this failed due to lack of support.
The Labour MSP told The Herald she is "pleased" the latest proposals are being debated.
Ms Grant said: "I have long campaigned for the purchase of sex to be criminalised and the decriminalisation of the sale of sex, and I am pleased these proposals are being debated.
"Our first priority must be keeping women safe and protecting them from harm.
"As it stands, the Scottish legal system penalises women who sell sex, but not the pimps who exploit women or the men who pay for sex — this needs to change.
"It is vital that any changes properly protect and support exploited women, and I will be carefully scrutinising this bill to ensure it is the case."
The SNP recognised that prostitution is a form of violence against women in their Equally Safe Strategy.
In their policy principles, it states: "Those perpetrating exploitation (such as sex buyers and profiteers) will be held to account."
Although six SNP MSPs including Fergus Ewing, Michelle Thomson and Kenneth Gibson have supported Ms Regan's proposals, it is not yet clear how others in the party will vote.
There are those in Scotland who classify themselves as sex workers who oppose the legislation and have told reporters it could be "disastrous" for their safety.
A YouGov poll of 1,088 Scottish adults, carried out last year, showed that 47% Scots think it should be legal for a person to pay someone to have sex with them, versus 32% who think it should not be legal.
The poll showed that 69% of Scots believed MSPs should focus on protecting the health and safety of sex workers, and providing support to people who want to leave the industry, compared to 14% who support new laws to prevent people exchanging sexual services for money.
It is understood both the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Greens will not support this Bill based on their party policy around prostitution.
The Scottish Greens believe that Ash Regan's proposals would create an "underground and unregulated" system and they instead want to see full decriminalisation of prostitution.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats also want to decriminalise sex work "in line with best international practices", they have said.
The party believes this will reduce harm and the risks to those involved.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats say it is their understanding that where the purchase of sex has been criminalised, as proposed in this Bill, sex workers have been further marginalised and endangered as a result.
However, Ms Regan believes the pursuit of decriminalisation is "outdated" as she said the data from other countries is "very clear".
Ms Regan added: "We would say potentially that 15 years ago, if you are motivated by trying to do the right thing and trying to create a legislative environment that you feel does help and protect people, it is possible that you could have come to the conclusion, as they did in Germany in 2002.
"It is not possible to come to that conclusion now because we have seen what has happened in Germany.
"All the facts show us it increases the market of prostitution so more people are harmed, it increases the violence against women so more people are murdered, and it increases trafficking — and just right across the board it has not worked."
Ms Regan needs a simple majority for her Bill to pass at stage one.
Although she admitted it looks "tight" to get the legislation through by the end of the parliamentary term in 2026, she is confident it can be.
"I will admit, the time frames are tight.
"We have had a number of MSP colleagues who have come to tell me that they are looking forward to supporting it and that we should be bringing forward this debate into the parliament to have a full airing of the issues," Ms Regan said.
Although she would not share exact numbers of who is backing her Bill, she did say she is keeping a tally which "is rising daily."
"We are really at the beginning stages of this. So I would imagine that once people look into it, once the committee start to take evidence, that hopefully the level of support will rise."
