TOPEKA, Kan. – The Kansas Senate this week became the latest legislative body to pass a resolution declaring pornography a “public health hazard,” passing Senate Resolution 1723 by a vote of 35-4.
As with similar resolutions passed by other state legislatures, SR 1723 draws a causal connection between exposure to pornography and a host of social ills, including viewers developing “low self-esteem and body image disorders” and “an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages and an increased desire among adolescents to engage in risky sexual behavior.”
A familiar list of cherrypicked, nonspecific “research” is referenced in the resolution as well, including the claim that recent research “indicates that pornography is potentially biologically addictive, which means the user requires more mental stimulation, often in the form of more shocking material, in order to be satisfied.”
“This biological addiction often leads to increasing themes of risky sexual behaviors, extreme degradation, violence and child sexual abuse images and child pornography,” the resolution further claims.
While the resolution has no legal effect, in terming pornography “a public health hazard that leads to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms,” the Kansas Senate has laid down a marker calling for further action in the future.
“(W)e recognize the need for additional education, prevention, research and policy change at the community and societal levels, and we urge this chamber and other governing bodies to take appropriate steps to ensure progress is made,” the resolution states, concluding with a long list of state entities and individuals to whom copies of the resolution are to be delivered.
“Pornography exploits and humiliates those being used and it dehumanizes the user at the same time,” said Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook (R-Shawnee), the resolution’s primary sponsor. “Sexually explicit movies have (been) found to be significantly related to beliefs that women are sex objects.”
While only a handful of Senators voted against the measure, Pilcher-Cook’s fellow Republican Sen. Barbara Bollier has publicly voiced her doubts about the wisdom and necessity of the resolution – and wondered aloud how the Senate might approach the alleged public health risks associated with other controversial products.
“Seriously? We’ll see how excited they are about public health when it comes to guns,” Bollier said.
Another senator, Democrat David Haley, registered his concerns from a First Amendment perspective.
“Even though just a resolution, the danger in this language being affirmed by the majority in this chamber… I fear it could lead to unintended consequences in many ways,” Haley said.
The Kansas House passed a virtually identical resolution last March.
“When a person consumes pornography, it’s like consuming cocaine, or opioids,” Rep. Chuck Weber (R-Wichita) said at the time. “It has a detrimental effect. It messes up the wiring in our brains, it changes the way we function.”
While the House resolution ended with a call for urgent action on the part of various state agencies which is very similar to the one in the new Senate resolution, it’s unclear if the state has taken any such action – other than the Senate now having passed a resolution of its own.
