A coalition of anti-pornography advocates called on Republican presidential candidates Monday to speak against "the sexual exploitation of women and children by pornography" and to pledge strict enforcement of existing obscenity laws.
"Pornographers now know they are a protected class in America," says the American Family Association's Pat Truehill.
Speaking before Monday night's GOP candidates' debate here, Center for Arizona Policy president Len Munsil said it would have been "the ideal forum" for the candidates to "distinguish themselves not only from each other but also from the current President."
Both Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls have been asked to sign a pledge agreeing to enforce existing federal anti-porn laws if elected. The American Family Association says all Republican candidates except the two front-runners - Texas governor George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain - have signed the pledge, while neither Vice President Albert Gore nor former Sen. Bill Bradley, the two Democratic White House hopefuls, have signed.
"America was winning its war on illegal pornography, with successful federal prosecutions in most states, until Bill Clinton was elected President," says Trueman, who spearheaded porn prosecutions in the Reagan and Bush administrations. "President Clinton stopped that war."
Trueman says the Clinton administration refuses to prosecute "those who have turned the Internet into a porn shop convenient to most children…(t)hey can violate federal obscenity laws with impunity."
Aside from the Center for Arizona Policy and the AFA, the anti-porn groups calling for the pledge include the American Decency Association, the Center for Reclaiming America, Christian Alliance For Sexual Recovery, Christian Family Network, Citizens for Community Values, Concerned Women for America, Coral Ridge Ministries, Enough is Enough, Family First, Family Friendly Libraries, Liberty Counsel, National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, Oklahomans for Children and Families, Straight from the Heart, the National Law Center for Children and Families.
