Hugh Hefner: GOP at war with sex

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LOS ANGELES, April 24 (UPI) -- Playboy founder Hugh Hefner says in the magazine's May issue a Republican presidential victory would endanger "sexual liberation" in the United States.

In an editorial in the magazine's May issue, Hefner cited a pledge by former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., to cut all federal funding for contraception and right-wing radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh's claim that a Georgetown University law student who advocated mandating that insurance plans pay for birth control is a "slut," Politico reported.

"Fifty years of sexual freedom vanished in a sound bite," Hefner said.

The editorial is headlined "The War on Sex."

Hefner says "repressed conservatives" are "pounding on America's bedroom door."

"If these zealots have their way, our hard-won sexual liberation -- women's rights, reproductive rights and rights to privacy -- lie in peril," Hefner wrote. "We won't let that happen."

Hefner founded Playboy in 1953. The magazine became a publishing success story and continues to be published, although it has been eclipsed by more explicit publications and online pornography.