Arizona Passed New Law Making Purchasing Sex a Felony, with Fines Paid by Sex Buyers Supporting Sex Trade Survivors
On June 5, 2026, Arizona became the 8th state to elevate the crime of purchasing prostitution from a misdemeanor to a felony offense. The new law (HB2720) imposes 15 days of jail time and a $200 fine as penalties for convicted sex buyers. The funds from fines will be deposited into an anti-human trafficking grant fund. The bill modifies the definition of prostitution to include both soliciting and paying for sexual conduct, with specific penalties outlined for each, and designates that assessments collected from those convicted of paying for sex must be used exclusively for services provided to victims of sex trafficking.
The bill passed the state House and Senate earlier in 2026 with bipartisan support. Gov. Katie Hobbs signed the bill into law last Friday.
Arizona State Representative Selina Bliss, the bill’s sponsor, called it “a victory for families, neighborhoods, and victims who deserve a path out. The people paying for sex are funding an industry that traffickers exploit, and communities across Arizona are left to deal with the crime, abuse, and damage that follow,” she said in a statement. “This law holds offenders accountable, puts money directly toward helping victims recover, and puts every person who pays for sex in Arizona on notice: you can face jail time, a felony record, and the consequences that come with it,” she added.
Already this year, three additional states passed similar bills. Last month, Georgia SB547 elevated pandering (seeking to purchase sex) from a misdemeanor to a felony carrying a prison sentence of one to ten years. The bill takes effect on July 1, 2026, and applies to any offense committed after that date. In February, Kansas passed HB2347, and in April, Missouri HB2273 was signed into law.
These four states join Texas, Montana, Oklahoma, and North Carolina in correcting a long-standing and widespread mistake: the mis-classification as a low-level misdemeanor of the core offense that drives the entire global sex trafficking industry, fostering the full range of violent felonies including sex trafficking, kidnapping, assault, rape, human trafficking, and all manner of child abuse. We applaud the stakeholders who drove positive law reform in these states, and urge the remaining 42 states to follow their lead.