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WASHINGTON, D.C., March 19, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum made waves last week with his pledge to enforce existing laws against pornography distributors. “Rick Santorum believes that federal obscenity laws should be vigorously enforced,” he proclaimed on his website. But concern about the Obama administration’s lax enforcement of federal obscenity laws is not restricted to the Right.

Last May, nearly half of the U.S. Senate – including Dianne Feinstein, Amy Klobuchar, four other Democrats, and Independent Joe Lieberman – wrote a letter “to urge the Department of Justice vigorously to enforce federal obscenity laws against major commercial distributors of hardcore adult pornography.”

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The 42 U.S. Senators expressed concern that the Obama administration had abruptly curtailed prosecution of obscenity laws.

In terms more harsh than those on Santorum’s website, the letter denounced the ill effects of rampant porn use. “We know more than ever how illegal adult obscenity contributes to violence against women, addiction, harm to children, and sex trafficking,” it said. “This material harms individuals, families and communities and the problems are only getting worse.”

In 2011, Eric Holder dissolved the Bush-era Obscenity Prosecution Task Force, which prosecuted distributors of extreme hardcore pornography, folding it into the into the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Ronald Weich said the Justice Department now enforces laws against “child exploitation and cases involving the sexual abuse of children.”

Laws against pornography, no matter how shocking or graphic, are not being defended.

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One of the letter’s signatories, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, said at the time: “Attorney General Holder told the Judiciary Committee last year that this task force was the centerpiece of the strategy to combat adult obscenity. Rather than initiate a single new case since President Obama took office, however, the only development in this area has been the dismantling of the task force.”

“As the toxic waste of obscenity continues to spread and harm everyone it touches, it appears the Obama administration is giving up without a fight,” he said.

Although Rick Santorum has become the most conspicuous spokesman of enforcing existing laws, both his chief GOP rivals have made the same promise.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney told the anti-obscenity watchdog group Morality in Media: “(I)t is imperative that we cultivate the promotion of fundamental family values,” and this “includes strict enforcement of our nation’s obscenity laws.”
 
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told MIM’s executive director, Dawn Hawkins, he “will appoint an Attorney General who will enforce these laws.”