Porn Health Clinic Closed

Los Angeles County on Thursday served a cease-and-desist order on a Sherman Oaks-based clinic serving the adult-film industry, two days after state health officials denied it a community clinic operating license. Among other "business-related issues," the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM) lacked a required agreement with a hospital to which patients could be transferred as needed, said Al Lundeen, a spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health.

Diane Duke, executive director of the adult-film industry association Free Speech Coalition, said it is her understanding that AIM will continue to maintain its database of screening results that adult-film producers use to determine whether prospective performers are HIV-negative and have no STDs. The clinic, which was scheduled to be open Friday, will not conduct new tests or procedures, but will refer performers to a list of alternate testing sites.

On AIM's website, staff members called the closure a "temporary situation," and said AIM is "rapidly moving forward" in completing its license application. A Nov. 30 state notification said AIM had 60 days to resolve problems with its application, noted Jeffrey J. Douglas, an attorney for AIM.

It is unclear when AIM officials could submit a new license application, said Lundeen. "We're open to continuing to work with them," he said. In the immediate future, patients will "need to seek services somewhere else," he said.

"While L.A. County finally doing something by closing AIM is a good thing, we'll see if they have the backbone to shut down productions," said Michael Weinstein, president of Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Weinstein renewed his call to halt porn productions that do not require condoms.

Enforcing workplace safety regulations for adult-film performers is a state responsibility, said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county public health director, who added that the industry should not rely on testing alone to thwart the spread of HIV/STDs.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


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