Ross Spano files bill declaring pornography a ‘public health crisis’

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

Does Florida have a pornography problem? State Rep. Ross Spano thinks so.

That’s why the Dover Republican proposed a resolution that would recognize pornography is creating a “public health crisis” in the Sunshine State.

According to the proposal: “The public health crisis created by pornography and acknowledges the need for education, prevention, research, and policy change to protect the citizens of this state.”

Like other bills filed by Florida GOP lawmakers, similar legislation has already been introduced and passed in additional Red states.

More than a year ago, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed a resolution declaring pornography a “public health hazard.”

Tennessee lawmakers approved a joint resolution in June that “recognizes pornography as a public health hazard leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and [social] harms.”

In Virginia,  Republican Bob Marshall filed a resolution last December to declare pornography “a public health hazard leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms.” The text of his proposal calls for “education, prevention, research, and policy change at the community and societal level in order to address the pornography epidemic that is harming the people of the Commonwealth and the nation.”

Spano was unavailable for comment Tuesday morning.

Mitch Perry has been a reporter with Extensive Enterprises since November of 2014. Previously, he served as five years as the political editor of the alternative newsweekly Creative Loafing. He also was the assistant news director with WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa from 2000-2009, and currently hosts MidPoint, a weekly talk show, on WMNF on Thursday afternoons. He began his reporting career at KPFA radio in Berkeley. He's a San Francisco native who has now lived in Tampa for 15 years and can be reached at [email protected]