Democrat California Senator Susan Eggman erupts 'I am done with us' at rebels in her own party claiming they are protecting pedophiles because they don't want 'more black and brown men going to prison'

A Democratic lawmaker has delivered an impassioned plea to push through a bill to send pedophiles who buy sex with children to prison.

California State Senator Susan Eggman declared 'we have a moral responsibility to say, enough, enough' as she rallied the chamber to unanimous approval.

Antiquated state laws mean people who solicit underage prostitutes can only be charged with misdemeanors and only get two days in jail.

The bill SB 1414 would make it a felony punishable by two to four years in prison, a $25,000, and registration as a sex offender.

However, a group of rogue Democrats led by State Senator Scott Wiener watered down the bill in the Senate Public Safety Committee.

California State Senator Susan Eggman declared delivered an impassioned plea to push through a bill to send pedophiles who buy sex with children to prison

Eggman lashed out at the rebel lawmakers in her own party in her fiery speech on May 23 after they went against a bipartisan majority and Governor Gavin Newsom, who want the bill kept as tough as intended.

'I'd like to say as a progressive, proud member of this body for the last 12 years, I'm done,' she said.

'I'm done with us protecting people who would buy and abuse our children. I'm done.'

Wiener's rebels were concerned that the law would send too many more people to prison after warnings from legal groups about unintended consequences.

But Eggman disagreed, after many other attempts to update California's laws were stymied over the past decade.

'I don't want to send more Black and Brown men to prison. I don't want more people in prison,' she said. 

'But I don't want people buying girls. I don't want people buying little girls anymore. And I'm tired of saying it's okay and that we have to protect the men who do it.'

An anti-pedophile protest in St Paul, Minnesota

Eggman said she met too many young victims of sexual abuse in her pre-politics experience as a social worker who were 'wounded to their core'.

She said victims were often abused by those closet to them whom they 'love and look to protect them' - and when parents failed, the law had to act.

'I am not arguing that we open the gates to flood our prisons with people, but I am arguing that we have a moral responsibility to say, enough, enough,' she said.

'We have given away enough on this area and we've got to move back into the center or we all look like fools and laughing stocks. And what do we stand for?'

Eggman referenced documentary Escaping the Blade, which examined the underage sex trade in Sacramento.

State Senator Shannon Grove, who authored SB 1414, appeared in the documentary and used it as a key component of her push to get it through the chamber.

'Men are being given a little slap on the hand or a couple days and then they're back out again and they do the same thing,' Eggman said.

'They get caught over and over and over again. And somehow that's OK. It's not OK. It is not OK anymore. And no more am I watching.'

Eggman lashed out at the rebel lawmakers in her own party in her fiery speech on May 23 after they went against a bipartisan majority and Governor Gavin Newsom , who want the bill kept as tough as intended

Eggman will leave the state senate at the next election due to term limits, and urged her colleagues to continue the work after she was gone.

'I'm leaving. But the rest of you who are going to be here for a while, let's get our stuff together and really start focusing on some of the important things,' she said.

'We talk about learning and we talk about being safe. This is like at the core of it. And a lot of these kids can be throwaway kids. 

'They're poor kids, they're kids of color, but they shouldn't have to live a life determined by what happens to them by others at a very young age and have the Democratic Party of California say, it's OK. 

'It's not okay. And I'm not doing it anymore. And I hope none of you do too. We have to be able to draw a line. And for me, I'm drawing a line. I urge your aye vote.'

Soon after Eggman and many others spoke in support of SB 1414, the bill sailed through the state senate 36-0.

The bill will now go to the state assembly, where Grove and most others on both parties hope it will be beefed back up to its original form.

Grove designed the bill to make soliciting underage prostitutes a felony across the board, to follow up a previous bill that targeted pimps and sex traffickers.

In addition to increasing punishments, the bill also removed the need for suspects to know or to have reasonably known that that sex worker was underage.

Eggman said she met too many young victims of sexual abuse in her pre-politics experience as a social worker who were 'wounded to their core'

But after the Public Safety Committee, controlled by Wiener's rebels, was finished with it, it was so watered down Grove wanted to take her name off it.

'That's garbage, garbage. I don't know what to say. I may pull my name off the bill. It's not my bill. They hijacked my bill, and they turned it into something that was palatable to them,' she said.

Instead of a felony, the the crime would be a 'wobbler', meaning the court can decide whether to charge the accused with a felony or misdemeanor.

The need to know or reasonably know the sex worker was underage was reinstated and first-time offenders would not always have to register as sex offenders.

The most controversial change was to make the bill essentially not apply when the victim was 16 or 17, leaving the crime a misdemeanor in those cases.

The changes were in response to criticism from the ACLU and the California Public Defenders Association, among others, about unintended consequences.

'The core problem is that this bill is not limited to solicitation by mature adults or even adults at all,' Smart Justice California policy adviser Natasha Minsker said.

'This bill applies to words spoken by 16 or 17-year-olds to another 17-year-old.'

State Senator Shannon Grove, who authored SB 1414, wanted to take her name off it after it was watered down in committee

The CPDA said the bill punishes some defendants more harshly even when they did not have the intent to have sex with a minor.

'This change will unfortunately lump some defendants into the category of sex offender with lifelong consequences for them and their families even though the intent is completely lacking,' it said.

The bill will be debated by the state assembly in coming months and some or all of Grove's provisions could be reinstated.

'The crime of purchasing a child, of any age, for sex in the state of California should be a prison felony,' she said after the weaker version passed. 

'We must restore this bill in the Assembly to protect every child in the state of California from the horrific crime of sex trafficking.'