What to Know About the Comstock Act
As the legal battle over abortion pills winds through the federal courts, anti-abortion activists are citing a 150-year-old law, the Comstock Act of 1873, to bolster their case.
For most of the past century, that law has rarely if ever been enforced, with many of its anti-vice provisions narrowed by federal courts or considered to be vastly out of date. But with the overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision, opponents of abortion rights have begun invoking it as a legal basis for blocking the mailing of abortion medication, which could have sweeping implications for abortion access across the country.
Here is how the Comstock Act came to be and how it is being viewed today.
What does the Comstock Act say?
Among other things, the Comstock Act prohibits the mailing of “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” materials, like pornography, or any article or thing “intended for the prevention of conception or procuring of abortion.” It also prohibits shipping those things by way of express common carriers, meaning services like FedEx or UPS.
The act’s namesake, Anthony Comstock, was a deeply religious Civil War veteran turned anti-vice crusader from New York who was obsessed with combating what he saw as a culture of sexual impurity. He successfully pushed Congress to restrict materials he saw as immoral, arguing that allowing them to be distributed through the mail corrupted the public and posed a danger to children.
Source: The New York Times
