(WSB Radio State Capitol Bureau/AP) -- A state lawmaker and hundreds of child advocates are calling for young girls to be treated as victims and not criminalized as prostitutes.

Sen. Renee Unterman is proposing a bill that would set the minimum age at 16 for prosecuting sex-for-hire.

"There are approximately 400 children per month in the streets of Atlanta that are being prostituted," she says.

Unterman says the bill does not decriminalize prostitution but aims to make people aware that young children are not responsible for sexual acts and need rehabilitation and therapy, not jail time.

"It says that they are a victim and that they deserve services and they will get services in the state of Georgia," she says.

Unterman says more than a $1 million is state money is available to offer those services.

But conservative and Christian groups banned together to oppose the bill. They say it would lead to more prostitution.

"All we would do is be inviting into our state  pedophiles and panderers looking for children," says former state Sen. Nancy Schaefer, now president of Eagle Forum of Georgia.

She says correction can also turn a child around and that discipline should not be removed when it comes to children engaging in illegal activity.

Schaefer says there are plenty of Christian organizations that can offer help to child prostitutes without changing the law.