A Missouri state Senate committee is considering a resolution that would declare pornography a public health threat.
The GOP-backed resolution declares that pornography “perpetuates a sexually toxic environment.”
The resolution, which would not alter state law if passed, argues that pornography can “contribute to emotional and medical illnesses,” “shape deviant sexual arousal” and has negatively affected the “family unit,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
No action was taken on the resolution on Tuesday.
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GOP state Sen. Ed Emery, who authored the resolution, also suggested that pornography may have played a role in the scandals swirling around Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R).
Greitens is refusing to resign over allegations that he blackmailed a woman after coercing her to have sex with him, and was also accused of criminal wrongdoing related to a charity donor list.
“In my opinion, what is unveiled by a personal moral failure may be a reflection of a disturbing and invasive social evil — that of the proliferation of pornography and modern culture’s ambivalence toward it,” Emery said of Greitens in a letter to constituents.
“Far too often, such behavior grows out of an exposure to pornography,” he added. “Where is the outcry against the evil of pornography?”