The Region - News from May 9, 1986

The movement to limit the sale of pornography is driving X-rated magazines out of the family marketplace, the Rev. Jerry Falwell told the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. Falwell predicted that up to 50,000 retail stores nationwide will decide by the end of the year to not sell sex-oriented magazines “that exploit and demean the bodies of women and corrupt our young people.” The Virginia minister, who founded the Moral Majority, insisted he did not want to abridge the First Amendment rights of pornographers, but added, “I’m trying to put them out of business.” He said the immediate goal is to get such materials away from young people and force those wanting to read them to “go down to sleazetown, where adult bookstores and the cockroaches run, to buy the garbage.” In the long-run, Falwell said, his hope is that “pornography will no longer be profitable” in the United States.