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Pornographer Sues Bush over Anti-Prostitution Measure

WASHINGTON, August 25, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - US porn king, Philip D. Harvey, is suing the Bush administration over its anti-prostitution policies saying that the restriction on USAID funding is an "unconstitutional infringement of speech." Harvey, the founder and chief executive of one of the world's largest mail-order pornography and sex merchandise businesses is also the founder and president of DKT International which promotes condoms and abortion in the developing world and is a major player in the population control movement.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Bush administration says that U.S. and foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) receiving USAID funding must adopt a policy "explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking."

A common position of many condom and abortion advocates is the attempt to legitimize prostitution, calling it the "sex trade," and depicting it as a legitimate profession. DKT International insists that the "sex trade" cannot be stopped, and that condoms are the only way to stop AIDS. "We accept what they do as part of the reality of today's world," says Harvey, "and we do our best to empower them so they can adopt practices that will minimize the risk of HIV transmission."

Harvey has a long record of winning his legal battles on the grounds of freedom of speech, his experience going back to the 1970's when he first began a mail order condom and pornography business while selling condoms over state lines was illegal. Under the Reagan administration, he successfully fought criminal obscenity charges and now receives considerable funding for his international projects from USAID without any fear of legal interference.

Harvey's business, Adam and Eve, in 2001 did over US $80 million in sales and expanded from sex toys to in-house pornographic films. Harvey established DKT International, a non-profit organization funded by various governments naively acting under the impression his is a bona fide service to the poor.

Anti-trafficking organizations are concerned that the support that DKT receives from other governments will be construed in court as support for Harvey's suit against the US government's anti-prostitution policy.  Gregory Carlin of the Irish Anti-Trafficking Coalition (IATC) is keen to ensure that Irish government funding of DKT is not used to bolster the claim that Harvey's suit is legitimate. "The Irish government supports the anti-trafficking policies of the US government," Carlin told LifeSiteNews.com.  

Since Harvey has exposed himself as a purveyor of porn and a promoter of prostitution, the IATC is recommending that the Irish government reassess their support for DKT.

For his part, Harvey thinks his services are bullet-proof.  In 2002, he summed up the attitude of the international support he receives, saying, "The key people in charge of family planning overseas, even in conservative governments, are not the types who are likely to be upset by sex products. After all, they're in the sex business themselves."

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
USAID Contracts Awarded to Porn Merchant
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/mar/03030404.html

Over 100 Groups Urge President Bush to Enforce Anti-Prostitution Policy
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/aug/05080909.html

Concerned Women for America Article on Harvey's opposition to abstinence programmes:
http://www.cultureandfamily.org/articledisplay.asp?id=623&department=CFI&...

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