LogFAQs > #980509904

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/10/1243802678/abortion-comstock-act#:~:text=

The Comstock Act (linked here and here at the Legal Information Institute) is an 1873 anti-obscenity law, named after anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock. The law, which is still on the books, calls for banning the mailing or shipping of "every obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article, matter, thing, device, or substance." In addition, it specifically outlaws mailing "every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion."

The intent of the law was not expressly about abortion, according to Mary Ziegler, law professor at the University of California, Davis. Instead, it was about what Comstock and his contemporaries called "sexual purity."

"The fear was that if people knew about abortion and contraception, which was also outlawed originally, that they would have sex they shouldn't have, just as if they, you know, looked at pornography," Ziegler said.

Of course, abortion pills as well as many things that might be considered"obscene," "lewd" and so on are currently sent through the mail. That's because the legal interpretation of the Comstock Act was narrowed repeatedly over the years.

The law's abortion provisions were rendered moot by Roe v. Wade in 1973. But with the Supreme Court overturning Roe in 2022, opponents of abortion rights started viewing Comstock as a way to restrict abortion, without the need for Congress or the courts to do anything.

In particular, that policy is promoted by "Project 2025."

"A straightforward interpretation of the statute is that it prohibits all interstate shipment or sale of abortion drugs and devices, regardless of whether state law allows abortion," Craddock says.

More in the link, including discussion of Project 2025. The article is from April, however I feel like not a lot of people know that this is their strategy for having a national abortion ban without legislating one, as the Comstock Act is still officially on the books.