Live Action president and founder Lila Rose recently returned to the Whatever podcast alongside Catholic apologist, Trent Horn. The two debated Jazmen Jafar — a lawyer who quit her job to work on the OnlyFans porn site — and internet personality and political commentator, Destiny, in a wide-ranging debate about the societal harms of pornography. Rose and Horn maintained that the widespread use of pornography contributes to numerous social ills, while Jafar and Destiny claimed that there is nothing wrong with pornography, even as it pertains to children.
The complete debate lasted over three hours; highlights can be viewed in the clip below:
In speaking against pornography, Rose argued that it divorces sex from its meaning and purpose, and as a result, it breaks down culture, breaks down marriages, and leads to an increase in abortion. She pointed out that the sexual revolution of the twentieth century opened the floodgates of pornography, which has resulted in a lot of social ills, such as no-fault divorce, swinger culture, open marriages, and legalized abortion.
“When we disorder sex…when you take sex [out of the context of marriage of family] and put it in the context of my goal, my orgasm, what I want… children will suffer,” she said.
Rose brought attention to the fact that many children have viewed pornography themselves, which the American College of Pediatricians states leads to “negative emotional, psychological, and physical health outcomes… [including] increased rates of depression, anxiety, acting out and violent behavior, younger age of sexual debut, sexual promiscuity, increased risk of teen pregnancy, and a distorted view of relationships between men and women.” Rose noted that some children have even been forced to participate in pornographic activity through child sex abuse and trafficking. She pointed out that the massive increase in child sexual assault material online is a direct result of pornography.
“To say that children are unscathed at the proliferation of porn is totally untrue,” Rose said. “In addition, sexual hedonism at large leads to abortion on demand.”
While Jafar countered that she could find no data supporting the claim that pornography harms children, Rose pointed out, “There are over 100 studies that have revealed links between young people’s exposure to objectifying content and their objectification of women or self-objectification. Those exposed to objectifying portrayals are more tolerant of or in agreement with sexual harassment, adversarial sexual beliefs, rape myths, child sex abuse myths, and interpersonal violence than participants without this exposure.”
She added, “To argue that kids being exposed to porn, or adults using porn is harmless, there’s no negative effect to them or the way they view other people is simply false.”
READ: Live Action president Lila Rose gives pro-abortion, anti-marriage crowd a wake up call
Contraception and abortion
Rose also maintained that pornography, abortion, and contraception are all linked to the disordered mindset that sex can be treated recreationally — though the outcomes often involve people getting hurt, as well as unintended pregnancies. “Even with the technology [of the sexual revolution], the natural outcomes and consequences still find a way,” Rose said.
She pointed out that, according to the Guttmacher Institute, 50% of women who get abortions got pregnant in the same month they were using birth control. In debating with Destiny, Rose said, “I know you think abortion is acceptable up to a certain point. There are over 10,000 abortions that happen after that marker that you think it’s a human life. So is 10,000 murders of children that are viable in this country a year, is that worth the promiscuity of adults?”
The beauty of sex as God intended
Rose was clear to point out that sex itself is a good thing — so long as it’s used in the way God designed it, in the context of marriage and family.
“Pornography and sex work is bad for society, bad for everyone involved,” she said. “The data not only shows that, but people’s life experiences show that, they’re dissatisfied with their dating relationships, marriages struggle… porn addiction in addition to child sex abuse material proliferating with this, that’s a consequence of forgetting the beautiful design of what sex is for, and disrespecting and cheapening sex.”
She added: “I think we should elevate sex and celebrate it more, it’s not puritanical. Sex is something that’s good and beautiful, it’s designed for love, it’s designed to give life into the world and that’s amazing. It’s so sad that people’s sexual experiences and their orgasm is now being caught up in all the horrific social harm that we’ve been talking about when instead they should be caught up in a beautiful relationship of love.”
