A bill that would have decriminalized prostitution in Colorado will not move forward this year after its sponsor said it lacks the votes to pass its first committee.

Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, a Pueblo Democrat, said he will ask to postpone Senate Bill 97 until after the legislative session ends, rather than advance it to a contentious hearing where supporters — including sex workers — feared harassment and public exposure.

SB 97 would have changed the term “prostitution” to “commercial sex activity.” It also would have eliminated four petty offenses, including solicitation, patronizing a prostitute, and the petty offense of prostitution itself.

It would repeal the ban against making a display to engage in prostitution, currently a petty offense. Using a building or place for prostitution would no longer be a public nuisance. Also, it would eliminate a provision in the escort services statutes that declares prostitution as illegal.

While the bill decriminalizes prostitution, it does not provide for a regulatory framework. Instead, local governments may not longer prohibit it. They also may not deny applications for a business license when the applicant has been convicted of soliciting prostitution. They would be prohibited from banning the advertising of prostitution and escort services.

Hinrichsen told Colorado Politics the bill didn’t have the votes to get out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where SB 97 was scheduled for a Wednesday hearing.

He said that sex workers would have been at the Capitol in force Wednesday to testify, but that some did not feel safe coming to the Capitol, as they’re worried that identifying themselves would have opened them up to surveillance and doxxing. There have already been nasty comments made, which Hinrichsen called “witch-hunting.”

Without the votes to get the bill out of committee, it wasn’t worth the risk, he said.

Hinrichsen also said he had some frustrations with how the bill was portrayed, starting with calling it an effort to “legalize” prostitution.

Under legalization, the state would come up with regulations on commercial sex activity, which SB 97 doesn’t do, he said. A law setting up an escort bureau, which SB 97 would have amended, has been in place since 1980.

While decriminalizing prostitution, the bill would have left in place laws banning pimping, a felony, and pandering when it is tied to criminal intimidation or menacing.

Opponents of the proposed legislation deliberately misrepresented the two concepts as one and the same, Hinrichsen said.

“I want Coloradans to hear from people impacted, from the sex workers,” Hinrichsen said, adding that studies have shown that places that have decriminalized prostitution, without increasing prostitution, result in safer outcomes.

That includes less trafficking, fewer sexually transmitted diseases, and fewer assaults on sex workers, he said.

The lack of a criminal record for prostitution will make it easier for a sex worker to get a job in another area, Hinrichsen said, adding, “I think that is something that should be a goal, whatever your moral views on sexuality.”

That was a conversation, he said, that didn’t go far enough because it was drowned out by misinformation and a “moral panic” response.

Hinrichsen believes this is not the end of the conversation, but he won’t be part of it in the future, as he is not running for re-election this year, he said.

Opponents earlier said it would exacerbate human trafficking in Colorado, with one critic warning the legislation could lead to the state becoming a “mecca” for sex trafficking.

A few weeks ago, Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly had called the bill “unconscionable.”

“(Trafficking victims) are already being manipulated. They’re being intimidated into getting into this line of work,” he said. “I think for the legislature to try and legalize this and potentially make it more difficult to identify trafficking victims is horrible.”

Weekly said his constituents are shocked when they heard lawmakers want to decriminalize prostitution.

“I think this is going to bring undesired consequences throughout our state,” Weekly said, adding its preemption language over municipal ordinances is “egregious.”

If the bill passes, Weekly predicted not only an uptick in prostitution, but drug use and sexually transmitted infections, as well.

“The fact of the matter is this industry is wrought with drug abuse and other criminal activity,” he said.

In Weekly’s view, decriminalizing prostitution would only bring more human traffickers into the state, a position that former Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey agreed.

Morrissey said the bill would make Colorado “a mecca” for sex traffickers.

“You’ll see an increase in prostitution, but I also think you’ll see an increase of people that aren’t coming here consensually that are being trafficked,” he said.