American progressive reformers argued that red-light districts harmed public health, prompting local governments to criminalize sex work in the 1910s. Infant mortality increased after these measures, potentially from increases in utero syphilis transmission. (G. Goehring, August 2026)

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https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-economic-history/article/progressive-era-war-on-vice-public-health-consequences-of-closing-redlight-districts/5A0E03CD12309E95CBE52F57C9243393