LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The state of Arkansas is the latest to declare pornography the cause of a “public health crisis,” furthering the trend that began with a similar resolution adopted in Utah last year.
Like its predecessors in other states, HR 1042, sponsored by republican Rep. Karilyn Brown, is a nonbinding resolution that begins by “recognizing and finding that the proliferation and accessibility of pornography has created a public health crisis leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms.”
In support of the measure, the Assembly heard from former adult performer Jessica Neely, whose nom de porn was “Angela Aspen.”
“The pornography industry, strip clubs, Hooters and all forms of exploitation prey upon the vulnerable,” Neely said in her testimony, although it’s unclear whether the (allegedly edible) chicken wings served at Hooters are also to be considered part of this ongoing public health crisis.
One thing is for sure: Arkansas is no stranger to public health issues.
In a 2013 report, “Arkansas’s Big Health Problems and How We Plan to Solve Them,” the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) noted the state “is ranked very low in terms of overall health.”
“We are ranked 48th out of 50 states,” the ADH stated in its report. “Only Louisiana and Mississippi have lower rankings. Arkansas ranks low for many reasons. These reasons include high rates of early death, infant death and death from chronic diseases. They also include other factors, such as unhealthy lifestyles, low high school graduation rates and differences based on where people live in the state.”
Oddly enough, nowhere in this report is the word “pornography” to be found. You will find the word “sex,” but only in the context of differentiating between male and female. There is one reference to sexually transmitted disease, which appears in a bullet point list of what the ADH is doing to stop the spread of HIV in the state.
Unless I’m remembering 2013 incorrectly, my sense is the people of Arkansas had plenty of unfettered access to pornography back then, too. So, either the ADH decided to ignore the public health crisis presented by porn, or the agency doesn’t quite see the world the same way the State Assembly does.
What the report does focus on, unsurprisingly, is the state’s relatively high rates of chronic disease, including “heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and kidney disease,” with the ADH noting along the way the state “has very high rates of chronic diseases compared to the U.S. as a whole.”
Charts within the report show Arkansas has rates of mortality higher than the national average in each of the areas of chronic disease listed above, and the problem is greatest among poorer citizens in the state. The greater severity of the problem among impoverished Arkansans is significant, because the state’s poverty rate has been one of the highest in the country for many years.
Call me crazy, but it’s hard for me to see how access to pornography rates much legislative or public health official attention in a state ranked 48th in the country in health, 46th in poverty and 43rd in high school graduation rates.
Granted, HR 1042 is just another toothless, largely symbolic resolution and as such, its passage presumably won’t result in the reduction of financial or human resources dedicated to the health problems that are of concern to the ADH.
On the other hand, if the legislature is serious about “the need for education, prevention, research and policy change at the community and societal levels in order to address the [porn] epidemic that is harming the people of our state and our country as a whole,” as stated in HR 1042, then it’s safe to assume this resolution isn’t the last we’ll hear from the Assembly about the porn-driven “crisis” affecting the state.
Of course, it’s also possible, in the future, the Assembly will be distracted by far more pressing concerns — like the disturbing lack of education among NCAA basketball officials.
Image © md. childress.
