Reviving The Comstock Act

Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 10:30
Updated
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 10:30
A hundred years later, they still want to root around in your medicine cabinet Trump wants to have it both ways in the election but I have no doubt that he will take revenge on the abortion rights movement the moment he gets into office. Here’s how he might do it: The next Republican president could effectively ban most abortions through a simple policy change at the Department of Justice, experts and advocates on both sides of the abortion debate say. While Republicans disagree about whether to pursue a national abortion ban that would face long odds in Congress, a GOP president may be able to unilaterally curb access to medication abortion across the country using an obscure 19th-century law. At issue is the meaning of the 1873 Comstock Act, which banned the mailing of “obscene” material like pornography, as well as abortion drugs and contraception. While the law has been cut down over the years, the abortion provision remained but was ignored while Roe v. Wade was in place. Medication abortion usually involves the use of two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, and accounts for more than half of abortions in the U.S. The Heritage Foundation, which has proposed detailed policies for a potential GOP administration, argues that Comstock “unambiguously prohibits mailing abortion drugs” and says the next administration should “enforce federal law against providers and distributors of [abortion] pills.” The Biden administration disagrees with this interpretation. A Justice Department memo issued last year contends that the law doesn’t prohibit mailing abortion drugs when the…