Will Crackdown On Porn Clinic Force Industry Out Of Los Angeles And California?

Will porn leave California over mandatory condoms?

The battle over condoms in adult video is getting serious. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has been triumphant in getting the county of L.A. and the state of California to shut down the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Foundation clinic, which does not have a license to operate.

The clinic became the focus of AHF's ire as it deconstructed porn's arguments for avoiding condom use -- namely that it has an AIM-facilitated system to ensure that actors are clean.

That clinic was porn's safety net, the nexus of its system of STD testing, where performers got checked out and producers checked out performers to ensure that bugs weren't going around the set. It wasn't a perfect system, but it was something. Now there is nothing, and production is going to go on.

Our commenter of the day, Michael Whiteacre, says if the pressure continues the anti-porn activists will only see the opposite of what they want (safe, clean environments for porn workers):

... The condom-mandate plan being spearheaded by AHF will either drive porn shoots underground or it will force them out of state (or out of the country), to places where there are less onerous "health and safety" regulations in place (and where the talent pool is not tested monthly as it is in California). Does that sound familiar, fellow Californians? Another legal, tax-paying, job-creating industry will flee this state, AND performers will be LESS safe in that instance, not more -- a result directly adverse to AHF's purported goals.

Should the state, county and AHF step back in the name of safety, or is it safer if porn faces its condom issue?