New law will ban sex toys from Walmart, Target: Texas rep's clampdown on ‘sexually-oriented businesses’

Newly-elected Texas rep. Hillary Hickland's bill seeks to overturn a previous “unconstitutional” ruling related to sex toy sales.

A newly-elected Texas legislator is going all out to unleash a clampdown on “sexually-oriented businesses,” such as sex shops and strip clubs. Hillary Hickland, elected in November to represent the Lone Star state’s District 55, pre-filed a move to restrict the “sale of obscene devices.”

 Her new legislation, Bill HB 1549, goes against a previous “unconstitutional” law that aimed to curb sex toys’ sales to six items at a time. According to The US Sun, her bill, once written into statute, will limit sales of devices like vibrators while simultaneously targeting erotic businesses.

This move to prevent children from being exposed to such things would likely make it harder to buy sex toys at flagship retail stores, including CVS, Walmart and Target, in Texas. Explaining why the potential ban on sex toys in “family-friendly stores” was a need of the hour, Hickland said, "Children have a right to grow up without being subjected to explicit material that they cannot fully understand and that could harm their development.”

She continued, “Allowing sexually explicit items in family-friendly stores takes away that right and places an undue burden on parents to guard their kids against inappropriate exposure in spaces meant for basic necessities like food and toiletries.”