Pornography Victims Compensation Act
The Pornography Victims Compensation Act of 1991 was a bill, S. 983, in the U.S. Congress. The sponsor in the Senate was Senator Mitch McConnell with eight cosponsors. A Senate committee held hearings on the bill. The bill was not voted on, did not pass, and did not become law.
Legislative substance
Under the bill, a person who was attacked after the attacker was substantially spurred by pornography could have been able to sue the pornography's producers, publishers, distributors, exhibitors, and sellers without needing a prior criminal charge against the pornography itself. It was written not to prohibit any publication, but to hold liable for certain consequences, according to McConnell. For political pragmatism, the bill was limited to child pornography and obscene material, that being already unprotected by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment to [the United States Constitution|First Amendment].As part of the rationale for passage, McConnell argued "that crime is fostered by a culture in which the sexual degradation, abuse, and murder of women and children are a form of entertainment", that "he connection between the amount of violent entertainment and the amount of real-life violence is no longer seriously doubted among social scientists," that "more than one million children from six months to sixteen years old are sexually molested and then filmed or photographed", and that "ornography is fueling violence in this country".
Title
The formal title varied by year, as listed in the History section, below.Informally, it was known as the Bundy Bill, after serial murderer Ted Bundy, who attributed his killings partly to porn.
History
The bill or versions of it had been under congressional consideration for several years prior. Earlier versions reached a wider range of pornography but had less support; narrowing that range to what was unprotected by Supreme Court of [the United States|Supreme Court] decisions on the First Amendment led to wider support.Other versions, searched for as introduced from approximately 1973 to part of 2010, included these:Pornography Victims Protection Act of 1984, S. 3063 in the Senate, introduced by Sen. Arlen Specter with no cosponsors. Hearings were held and, according to Sen. Specter, "itnesses disagreed sharply about the general social effects of such materials. Some, such as Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon, claimed that violent pornography is central to gender unequally in our society. Others, including Barry Lynn of the American Civil Liberties Union, denied that such a broad factual claim has been conclusively established. Sen. Specter considered it "premature" to introduce legislation "based on a civil rights approach", referring to an Indianapolis ordinance and a proposed Minneapolis ordinance, but did introduce S. 3063 instead.Pornography Victims Protection Act of 1985, S. 1187 in the Senate, introduced by Sen. Arlen Specter with one cosponsor. In 1987, Sen. Specter said this bill was a "companion" to H.R. 5509. This bill, S. 1187, was cited in a court case, in a judge's dissenting opinion.Pornography Victims Protection Act of 1986, H.R. 5509 in the House of Representatives, introduced by Rep. Bill Green with 27 cosponsors. Sen. Specter, speaking in 1987, said H.R. 5509 "received strong bipartisan support."Pornography Victims Protection Act of 1987, H.R. 1213 in the House of Representatives and S. 703 in the Senate, introduced respectively by Rep. Bill Green with 118 cosponsors and by Sen. Arlen Specter with 15 cosponsors. For S. 703, Sen. Specter made a public statement on the day he introduced the bill, explaining its premises and listing some of the support it has received. For both bills, subcommittees of the respective judiciary committees held hearings.Pornography Victims Protection Act of 1989, H.R. 3472 in the House of Representatives, introduced by Rep. Bill Green with 61 cosponsors.Pornography Victims Compensation Act of 1989, S. 1226 in the Senate, introduced by Sen. Mitch McConnell with 11 cosponsors.Pornography Victims Compensation Act of 1989, H.R. 3785 in the House of Representatives, introduced by Rep. Tom Tauke with 25 cosponsors.Pornography Victims Protection Act of 1991, H.R. 1768 in the House of Representatives, introduced by Rep. Bill Green with 68 cosponsors.Pornography Victims' Compensation Act of 1992, S. 1521 in the Senate, introduced by Sen. Mitch McConnell with 15 cosponsors.Pornography Victims Protection Act of 1993, H.R. 2174 in the House of Representatives, introduced by Rep. Jan Meyers with 33 cosponsors.
Supporters and opponents
1991 bill
Support came from Feminists Fighting Pornography and 200 National Organization for Women (NOW) chapters, but not two in New York and California and not from the national level of NOW. Support simultaneously came from Christian fundamentalists.Opponents included Feminists for Free Expression, Nadine Strossen, Betty Friedan, Marcia Pally, Adrienne Rich, Katha Pollitt, Karen DeCrow, Nora Ephron, Mary Gordon, Judy Blume, Jamaica Kincaid, Erica Jong, Susan Isaacs, Mary Morello, and "172 other feminist women".