Today, people across the nation will celebrate the mother figures of their families – mothers, grandmothers, foster moms, adoptive moms, mentors – women who have loved unconditionally and made great sacrifices.

Each sex trafficking survivor has a unique road to recovery, and for many of them, this intersects with motherhood. While there is limited data on sex trafficking and motherhood, the Polaris Project reports, “[trafficking] survivors pointed to sustained unemployment, unpaid debts, and desperation to provide for themselves and their children as major factors in their path to exploitation. Many described the promises made by their controller as their best chance of attaining some level of financial stability.”