Now Ohio Jumps on the ‘Porn is a Public Health Crisis’ Bandwagon

The anti-porn crusading group that calls itself the National Center on Sexual Exploitation has for the past several years circulated its own “report” titled Pornography: A Public Health Crisis, in which it makes such bold assertions as, “The pornography of today has created an unprecedented epidemic of sexual harm,” though scientific research generally does not support the group’s assertions. In one example, the NCSE claims that porn viewing in men leads to what the group calls “porn-induced erectile dysfunction.” In fact, seven separate studies have found no significant correlation between porn consumption and the ability or inability to achieve an erection. The group also claims that viewing of pornography also interferes in romantic relationships, but a 2018 study found that lower relationship satisfaction occurred mainly in men and women who already had “low acceptance” of pornography, but viewed it anyway. For men who tended to be accepting of porn, increased consumption of porn correlated with higher levels of relationship satisfaction. For women who reported accepting attitudes toward porn, it made no difference in their relationships, according to the Michigan State University study. Nonetheless, as AVN.com has reported, 15 states have already taken measures—either by passing or proposing legislation—to classify porn as a “public health crisis.”  The latest state to do so was Arizona, in early May. But now, just two months later, Ohio has also jumped on the bandwagon. Earlier this week, Republican state legislator Jena Powell introduced House Resolution 180 in Ohio, whis declares “that pornography is a public health hazard with statewide and national public health impacts leading to a broad spectrum of individual and societal harms.” The resolution, however, like most similar state resolutions, would have no binding legal effect, and does not call for any changes to state spending on public health issues, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.  "This resolution is looking at raising awareness and saying enough is enough," Powell told the paper. Though the resolution, like most of the previous state anti-porn resolutions, claims that porn “promotes problematic or harmful sexual behaviors,” critics point to a 2009 study at Texas A&M and University of Texas San Antonio which found that, in fact, incidents of sexual violence have declined in the United States and other industrialized countries even as easy access to porn has increased dramatically thanks to the internet. "In the absence of any credible research attributing significant damaging effects to pornography, such proposals seem like ideological posturing on the part of conservatives," Ohio University Media Studies Professor Joseph Slade told the Enquirer. Photo By Another Believer / Wikimedia Commons