Rick Santorum wants to ban hard-core pornography

Rick Santorum wants to put an end to the distribution of pornography in the United States.

"America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography," Santorum's official website reads. "Pornography is toxic to marriages and relationships. It contributes to misogyny and violence against women. It is a contributing factor to prostitution and sex trafficking."

The former Pennsylvania senator states that, "as a parent, I am concerned about the widespread distribution of illegal obscene pornography and its profound effects on our culture."

Santorum criticized the Obama administration for turning "a blind eye ... to the scourge of pornography" and for refusing to enforce obscenity laws.

"If elected President, I will appoint an Attorney General who will do so," Santorum writes. "While the Obama Department of Justice seems to favor pornographers over children and families, that will change under a Santorum Administration."

Santorum is not the first presidential candidate to take up the obscenity issue. In July, Michele Bachmann signed a pledge vowing her support of a constitutional amendment that, among other things, called for a ban on all pornography. (It also effectively called for a ban on same-sex marriage.)

The Atlantic wonders if Santorum's wide-scale crackdown on porn could actually work.

The Daily Caller found someone who thinks it could. "If the government wanted to aggressively move against Internet pornography, it could do so," UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh told the site.

Wonkette's Rebecca Schoenkopf pointed out it's just another example of Santorum positioning himself as the extremely conservative choice for president.

"It seems that Rick Santorum has found time in his busy schedule of condemning 'radical' women for working outside the home and using birth control, and nagging English-speaking Puerto Ricans to speak English, and now is turning his hot, penetrating gaze to manfolk-bizness," she wrote.

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