-
What Is the Comstock Act? Texas Judge Cites 1873 Anti-Obscenity Law to Halt Abortion Pill Approval
When U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled Friday the Food and Drug Administration’s two-decade old approval of the leading abortion drug mifepristone violates the law, he cited the 19th century Comstock Act, a so-called anti-vice law that prohibits the mailing of contraceptives and instruments or drugs that can be used in an abortion. It has been dormant for half a century. We speak to Lauren MacIvor Thompson, a historian of birth control, about the Comstock Act and its legacy.
Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at https://democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.
Support independent media: https://democracynow.org/donate
Subscribe to our Daily Email Digest: https://dem...
published: 10 Apr 2023
-
Anthony Comstock and Mann Act Clip, 3 min
This video is for exclusive use by History classes at Richland Community College. Because it is brief excerpt of a much larger work (de minimis) and is used for educational purposes, it qualifies as fair use under 17 USC § 107 and the TEACH Act of 2002.
published: 11 Nov 2009
-
Get the Facts: 1873 Comstock Act Used in Abortion Pill Decision
A federal judge’s decision overturning the Food and Drug Administration’s decades-old approval of a pill widely used in medical abortions relied, in part, on a century-and-a-half old law called the Comstock Act. Enacted in 1873, the law—not enforced in decades—prohibited the mailing of contraceptives, “lewd” writings and any “instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” that could be used in an abortion.
published: 13 Apr 2023
-
Flashpoint Focus: The Comstock Act of 1873
pen.org/flashpoints
published: 26 Sep 2023
-
What Is The Comstock Act? | Political Gabfest
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the John Durham report on the FBI investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign; the mifepristone case heard by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the 12-week abortion ban in North Carolina; and the legal showdown between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Disney.
Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:
David Frum for The Atlantic: “A Sinister Flop: Special Counsel John Durham served up not an investigation, but an excuse for future partisan abuses.”
Emily Bazelon for The New York Times: “How a 150-Year-Old Law Against Lewdness Became a Key to the Abortion Fight”
Debra Michals for the National Women’s History Museum: “Margaret Sanger
Stephen Neukam for The Hill: “Rick Scott on Disney-DeSantis feud: ‘Cooler...
published: 18 May 2023
-
The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age
Please note - this program contains adult content
Anthony Comstock, special agent to the U.S. Post Office, was one of the most important men in the lives of nineteenth-century women. His eponymous law, passed in 1873, penalized the mailing of contraception and obscenity with long sentences and steep fines. The word Comstockery came to connote repression and prudery. In her book, The Man Who Hated Women, bestselling author Amy Sohn presents a narrative history of Anthony Comstock, anti-vice activist and U.S. Postal Inspector, and the remarkable women who opposed his war on women’s rights at the turn of the twentieth century. Joining Sohn in conversation today will be journalist and author Elizabeth Mitchell.
For Live Captioning, use: https:// www.streamtext.net/player?event=TheManWhoHated...
published: 08 Jul 2021
-
Comstock Law
This video is about a set of laws from the late 19th century. This is also very edumacational!
published: 27 Oct 2023
-
Modern Necessary and Proper: Comstock
published: 31 Aug 2018
-
Comstock Laws
History of Comstock Laws in America
published: 13 Nov 2020
-
The Hideous Resurrection of the Comstock Act - Michelle Goldberg - Opinions @similaropinion
Please Support Us 🙏🏻
https://www.patreon.com/mycolumnists
🤗 Thank you for listening, I hope you will have a good time here.
☢ If you like the videos and subscribe to the channel, I can voice many corner posts for you.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjE1MkUOjel_P4e1pUPYsUg?sub_confirmation=1
🌎 I am voicing and presenting the daily articles of the columnists for you to listen to on this account.
🚫 The article and background in the video are not free to use, if you want to use the article and background in this video, please contact us.
⚠️ You can let the authors hear your thoughts by commenting under the videos.
In this channel, you will meet the world's most distinguished columnist writers. Wherever you are, you will be able to listen to them and find the chance to follow them daily...
published: 10 Apr 2023
9:08
What Is the Comstock Act? Texas Judge Cites 1873 Anti-Obscenity Law to Halt Abortion Pill Approval
When U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled Friday the Food and Drug Administration’s two-decade old approval of the leading abortion drug mifepristone vio...
When U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled Friday the Food and Drug Administration’s two-decade old approval of the leading abortion drug mifepristone violates the law, he cited the 19th century Comstock Act, a so-called anti-vice law that prohibits the mailing of contraceptives and instruments or drugs that can be used in an abortion. It has been dormant for half a century. We speak to Lauren MacIvor Thompson, a historian of birth control, about the Comstock Act and its legacy.
Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at https://democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.
Support independent media: https://democracynow.org/donate
Subscribe to our Daily Email Digest: https://democracynow.org/subscribe
#DemocracyNow
https://wn.com/What_Is_The_Comstock_Act_Texas_Judge_Cites_1873_Anti_Obscenity_Law_To_Halt_Abortion_Pill_Approval
When U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled Friday the Food and Drug Administration’s two-decade old approval of the leading abortion drug mifepristone violates the law, he cited the 19th century Comstock Act, a so-called anti-vice law that prohibits the mailing of contraceptives and instruments or drugs that can be used in an abortion. It has been dormant for half a century. We speak to Lauren MacIvor Thompson, a historian of birth control, about the Comstock Act and its legacy.
Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at https://democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.
Support independent media: https://democracynow.org/donate
Subscribe to our Daily Email Digest: https://democracynow.org/subscribe
#DemocracyNow
- published: 10 Apr 2023
- views: 43148
3:07
Anthony Comstock and Mann Act Clip, 3 min
This video is for exclusive use by History classes at Richland Community College. Because it is brief excerpt of a much larger work (de minimis) and is used fo...
This video is for exclusive use by History classes at Richland Community College. Because it is brief excerpt of a much larger work (de minimis) and is used for educational purposes, it qualifies as fair use under 17 USC § 107 and the TEACH Act of 2002.
https://wn.com/Anthony_Comstock_And_Mann_Act_Clip,_3_Min
This video is for exclusive use by History classes at Richland Community College. Because it is brief excerpt of a much larger work (de minimis) and is used for educational purposes, it qualifies as fair use under 17 USC § 107 and the TEACH Act of 2002.
- published: 11 Nov 2009
- views: 2808
1:50
Get the Facts: 1873 Comstock Act Used in Abortion Pill Decision
A federal judge’s decision overturning the Food and Drug Administration’s decades-old approval of a pill widely used in medical abortions relied, in part, on a ...
A federal judge’s decision overturning the Food and Drug Administration’s decades-old approval of a pill widely used in medical abortions relied, in part, on a century-and-a-half old law called the Comstock Act. Enacted in 1873, the law—not enforced in decades—prohibited the mailing of contraceptives, “lewd” writings and any “instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” that could be used in an abortion.
https://wn.com/Get_The_Facts_1873_Comstock_Act_Used_In_Abortion_Pill_Decision
A federal judge’s decision overturning the Food and Drug Administration’s decades-old approval of a pill widely used in medical abortions relied, in part, on a century-and-a-half old law called the Comstock Act. Enacted in 1873, the law—not enforced in decades—prohibited the mailing of contraceptives, “lewd” writings and any “instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” that could be used in an abortion.
- published: 13 Apr 2023
- views: 91
54:48
What Is The Comstock Act? | Political Gabfest
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the John Durham report on the FBI investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign; the mifepristone c...
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the John Durham report on the FBI investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign; the mifepristone case heard by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the 12-week abortion ban in North Carolina; and the legal showdown between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Disney.
Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:
David Frum for The Atlantic: “A Sinister Flop: Special Counsel John Durham served up not an investigation, but an excuse for future partisan abuses.”
Emily Bazelon for The New York Times: “How a 150-Year-Old Law Against Lewdness Became a Key to the Abortion Fight”
Debra Michals for the National Women’s History Museum: “Margaret Sanger
Stephen Neukam for The Hill: “Rick Scott on Disney-DeSantis feud: ‘Cooler heads have to prevail’”
Will Saletan for The Bulwark: “The Corruption of Lindsey Graham: A case study in the rise of authoritarianism.”
Here are this week’s chatters:
John: Rebecca Morelle and Alison Francis for BBC News: “Titanic: First ever full-sized scans reveal wreck as never seen before”; Lilit Marcus and Sania Farooqui for CNN: “Sherpa breaks record with 27th Mount Everest summit”
Emily: Divide Me By Zero by Lara Vapnyar
David: The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann; join David at a live taping of City Cast DC on Saturday June 3 at 1 p.m., Right Proper Brewing's Brookland production house and tasting room. Tickets are free. RSVP here.
Listener chatter from Jon: “Trappisten verlassen Abtei Engelszell” [Trappists leave Engelszell Abbey]
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, Emily, and John discuss with The Bulwark’s Will Saletan @saletan his book, “The Corruption of Lindsey Graham: A case study in the rise of authoritarianism.”
In the latest edition of Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Curtis Sittenfeld @csittenfeld about her book, Romantic Comedy.
Join us for a live taping! Political Gabfest Live in Washington, D.C., Wednesday June 28, 7:30 p.m., Sixth & I, 600 I St. NW. Tickets are on sale now.
Email your chatters, questions, and comments to
[email protected] or Tweet us @SlateGabfest. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth
Research by Julie Huygen
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Note: Captions are auto-generated by YouTube.
Subscribe to Slate: https://www.youtube.com/slate
Learn more: https://slate.com/podcasts/political-gabfest
Follow Slate on Social:
Political Gabfest on Twitter - https://twitter.com/SlateGabfest
Host David Plotz on Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidplotz
Host Emily Bazelon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilybazelon
Host John Dickerson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jdickerson
Slate on Twitter - https://twitter.com/slate
Slate Podcasts on Twitter - https://twitter.com/SlatePodcasts
Slate on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/slate
Slate on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slate
Support Slate's independent journalism. Join Slate Plus (and unlock unlimited articles, ad-free listening, and bonus content): https://slate.com/plus
https://wn.com/What_Is_The_Comstock_Act_|_Political_Gabfest
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the John Durham report on the FBI investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign; the mifepristone case heard by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the 12-week abortion ban in North Carolina; and the legal showdown between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Disney.
Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:
David Frum for The Atlantic: “A Sinister Flop: Special Counsel John Durham served up not an investigation, but an excuse for future partisan abuses.”
Emily Bazelon for The New York Times: “How a 150-Year-Old Law Against Lewdness Became a Key to the Abortion Fight”
Debra Michals for the National Women’s History Museum: “Margaret Sanger
Stephen Neukam for The Hill: “Rick Scott on Disney-DeSantis feud: ‘Cooler heads have to prevail’”
Will Saletan for The Bulwark: “The Corruption of Lindsey Graham: A case study in the rise of authoritarianism.”
Here are this week’s chatters:
John: Rebecca Morelle and Alison Francis for BBC News: “Titanic: First ever full-sized scans reveal wreck as never seen before”; Lilit Marcus and Sania Farooqui for CNN: “Sherpa breaks record with 27th Mount Everest summit”
Emily: Divide Me By Zero by Lara Vapnyar
David: The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann; join David at a live taping of City Cast DC on Saturday June 3 at 1 p.m., Right Proper Brewing's Brookland production house and tasting room. Tickets are free. RSVP here.
Listener chatter from Jon: “Trappisten verlassen Abtei Engelszell” [Trappists leave Engelszell Abbey]
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, Emily, and John discuss with The Bulwark’s Will Saletan @saletan his book, “The Corruption of Lindsey Graham: A case study in the rise of authoritarianism.”
In the latest edition of Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Curtis Sittenfeld @csittenfeld about her book, Romantic Comedy.
Join us for a live taping! Political Gabfest Live in Washington, D.C., Wednesday June 28, 7:30 p.m., Sixth & I, 600 I St. NW. Tickets are on sale now.
Email your chatters, questions, and comments to
[email protected] or Tweet us @SlateGabfest. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth
Research by Julie Huygen
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Note: Captions are auto-generated by YouTube.
Subscribe to Slate: https://www.youtube.com/slate
Learn more: https://slate.com/podcasts/political-gabfest
Follow Slate on Social:
Political Gabfest on Twitter - https://twitter.com/SlateGabfest
Host David Plotz on Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidplotz
Host Emily Bazelon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilybazelon
Host John Dickerson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jdickerson
Slate on Twitter - https://twitter.com/slate
Slate Podcasts on Twitter - https://twitter.com/SlatePodcasts
Slate on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/slate
Slate on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slate
Support Slate's independent journalism. Join Slate Plus (and unlock unlimited articles, ad-free listening, and bonus content): https://slate.com/plus
- published: 18 May 2023
- views: 297
56:40
The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age
Please note - this program contains adult content
Anthony Comstock, special agent to the U.S. Post Office, was one of the most important men in the lives of ni...
Please note - this program contains adult content
Anthony Comstock, special agent to the U.S. Post Office, was one of the most important men in the lives of nineteenth-century women. His eponymous law, passed in 1873, penalized the mailing of contraception and obscenity with long sentences and steep fines. The word Comstockery came to connote repression and prudery. In her book, The Man Who Hated Women, bestselling author Amy Sohn presents a narrative history of Anthony Comstock, anti-vice activist and U.S. Postal Inspector, and the remarkable women who opposed his war on women’s rights at the turn of the twentieth century. Joining Sohn in conversation today will be journalist and author Elizabeth Mitchell.
For Live Captioning, use: https:// www.streamtext.net/player?event=TheManWhoHatedWomen16863
https://wn.com/The_Man_Who_Hated_Women_Sex,_Censorship,_And_Civil_Liberties_In_The_Gilded_Age
Please note - this program contains adult content
Anthony Comstock, special agent to the U.S. Post Office, was one of the most important men in the lives of nineteenth-century women. His eponymous law, passed in 1873, penalized the mailing of contraception and obscenity with long sentences and steep fines. The word Comstockery came to connote repression and prudery. In her book, The Man Who Hated Women, bestselling author Amy Sohn presents a narrative history of Anthony Comstock, anti-vice activist and U.S. Postal Inspector, and the remarkable women who opposed his war on women’s rights at the turn of the twentieth century. Joining Sohn in conversation today will be journalist and author Elizabeth Mitchell.
For Live Captioning, use: https:// www.streamtext.net/player?event=TheManWhoHatedWomen16863
- published: 08 Jul 2021
- views: 5857
2:44
Comstock Law
This video is about a set of laws from the late 19th century. This is also very edumacational!
This video is about a set of laws from the late 19th century. This is also very edumacational!
https://wn.com/Comstock_Law
This video is about a set of laws from the late 19th century. This is also very edumacational!
- published: 27 Oct 2023
- views: 54
7:40
Comstock Laws
History of Comstock Laws in America
History of Comstock Laws in America
https://wn.com/Comstock_Laws
History of Comstock Laws in America
- published: 13 Nov 2020
- views: 231
8:03
The Hideous Resurrection of the Comstock Act - Michelle Goldberg - Opinions @similaropinion
Please Support Us 🙏🏻
https://www.patreon.com/mycolumnists
🤗 Thank you for listening, I hope you will have a good time here.
☢ If you like the videos and subsc...
Please Support Us 🙏🏻
https://www.patreon.com/mycolumnists
🤗 Thank you for listening, I hope you will have a good time here.
☢ If you like the videos and subscribe to the channel, I can voice many corner posts for you.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjE1MkUOjel_P4e1pUPYsUg?sub_confirmation=1
🌎 I am voicing and presenting the daily articles of the columnists for you to listen to on this account.
🚫 The article and background in the video are not free to use, if you want to use the article and background in this video, please contact us.
⚠️ You can let the authors hear your thoughts by commenting under the videos.
In this channel, you will meet the world's most distinguished columnist writers. Wherever you are, you will be able to listen to them and find the chance to follow them daily. You will have a chance to know all about what important columnists think about developments in the world. Just by following this channel, you will listen to the agenda, health sector and magazine developments from expert columnist writers.
However, by writing your comments under the videos, you can make the corner writers watch you.
Like and share the videos with your friends. Subscribe and leave your comments. To become members of a big family.
Get the opportunity to talk with the world's outstanding writers.
#columnist #news #opinion #trump #nyt #washingtonpost #paulkrugman
@My Columnists
Anthony Comstock, the mutton-chopped anti-vice crusader for whom the Comstock Act is named, is back from the dead.
Comstock died in 1915, and the Comstock Act, the notorious anti-obscenity law used to indict the Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, ban books by D.H. Lawrence and arrest people by the thousands, turned 150 last month. Had this anniversary fallen five or 10 years ago, it barely would have been worth noting, except perhaps to marvel at how far we’d come from an era when a fanatical censor like Comstock wielded national political power. “The Comstock Act represented, in its day, the pinnacle of Victorian prudery, the high-water mark of a strict and rigid formal code,” wrote the law professors Joanna Grossman and Lawrence Friedman. Until very recently, it seemed a relic.
Yet suddenly, the prurient sanctimony that George Bernard Shaw called “Comstockery” is running rampant in America. As if inspired by Comstock’s horror of “literary poison” and “evil reading,” states are outdoing one another in draconian censorship. In March, Oklahoma’s Senate passed a bill that, among other things, bans from public libraries all content with a “predominant tendency to appeal to a prurient interest in sex.” Amy Werbel, the author of “Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of Anthony Comstock,” described how Comstock tried to suppress photographs of cross-dressing women. More than a century later, Tennessee has banned drag performances on public property, with more states likely to follow.
And now, thanks to a rogue judge in Texas, the Comstock Act itself could be partly reimposed on America. Though the act had been dormant for decades and Congress did away with its prohibitions on birth control in 1971, it was never fully repealed. And with Roe v. Wade gone, the Christian right has sought to make use of it. The Comstock Act was central to the case brought by a coalition of anti-abortion groups in Texas seeking to have Food and Drug Administration approval of mifepristone, part of the regimen used in medication abortion, invalidated. And it is central to the anti-abortion screed of an opinion by Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, the judge, appointed by Donald Trump, who on Friday ruled in their favor.It’s true that, as Kacsmaryk noted, the Comstock Act bars mailing “every article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion or for any indecent or immoral purpose.” The law imposes a five-year maximum prison sentence for first offenses and up to 10 years for subsequent ones. That’s why, almost as soon as the Supreme Court tossed out Roe, social conservatives started clamoring for the Comstock Act to be enforced against medication abortion. When 20 Republican attorneys general wrote to Walgreens and CVS warning them against distributing abortion pills, they invoked the Comstock Act.
Many legal scholars see this invocation of the Comstock Act as legally dubious. As David S. Cohen, Greer Donley and Rachel Rebouché explain in the draft of a forthcoming article, circuit court cases in the 1930s found that the Comstock Act applies only to materials meant to be used unlawfully. But for judges hellbent on banning abortion, as we’ve seen, precedent doesn’t mean much. “The Comstock Act plainly forecloses mail-order abortion in the present,” wrote Kacsmaryk.
https://wn.com/The_Hideous_Resurrection_Of_The_Comstock_Act_Michelle_Goldberg_Opinions_Similaropinion
Please Support Us 🙏🏻
https://www.patreon.com/mycolumnists
🤗 Thank you for listening, I hope you will have a good time here.
☢ If you like the videos and subscribe to the channel, I can voice many corner posts for you.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjE1MkUOjel_P4e1pUPYsUg?sub_confirmation=1
🌎 I am voicing and presenting the daily articles of the columnists for you to listen to on this account.
🚫 The article and background in the video are not free to use, if you want to use the article and background in this video, please contact us.
⚠️ You can let the authors hear your thoughts by commenting under the videos.
In this channel, you will meet the world's most distinguished columnist writers. Wherever you are, you will be able to listen to them and find the chance to follow them daily. You will have a chance to know all about what important columnists think about developments in the world. Just by following this channel, you will listen to the agenda, health sector and magazine developments from expert columnist writers.
However, by writing your comments under the videos, you can make the corner writers watch you.
Like and share the videos with your friends. Subscribe and leave your comments. To become members of a big family.
Get the opportunity to talk with the world's outstanding writers.
#columnist #news #opinion #trump #nyt #washingtonpost #paulkrugman
@My Columnists
Anthony Comstock, the mutton-chopped anti-vice crusader for whom the Comstock Act is named, is back from the dead.
Comstock died in 1915, and the Comstock Act, the notorious anti-obscenity law used to indict the Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, ban books by D.H. Lawrence and arrest people by the thousands, turned 150 last month. Had this anniversary fallen five or 10 years ago, it barely would have been worth noting, except perhaps to marvel at how far we’d come from an era when a fanatical censor like Comstock wielded national political power. “The Comstock Act represented, in its day, the pinnacle of Victorian prudery, the high-water mark of a strict and rigid formal code,” wrote the law professors Joanna Grossman and Lawrence Friedman. Until very recently, it seemed a relic.
Yet suddenly, the prurient sanctimony that George Bernard Shaw called “Comstockery” is running rampant in America. As if inspired by Comstock’s horror of “literary poison” and “evil reading,” states are outdoing one another in draconian censorship. In March, Oklahoma’s Senate passed a bill that, among other things, bans from public libraries all content with a “predominant tendency to appeal to a prurient interest in sex.” Amy Werbel, the author of “Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of Anthony Comstock,” described how Comstock tried to suppress photographs of cross-dressing women. More than a century later, Tennessee has banned drag performances on public property, with more states likely to follow.
And now, thanks to a rogue judge in Texas, the Comstock Act itself could be partly reimposed on America. Though the act had been dormant for decades and Congress did away with its prohibitions on birth control in 1971, it was never fully repealed. And with Roe v. Wade gone, the Christian right has sought to make use of it. The Comstock Act was central to the case brought by a coalition of anti-abortion groups in Texas seeking to have Food and Drug Administration approval of mifepristone, part of the regimen used in medication abortion, invalidated. And it is central to the anti-abortion screed of an opinion by Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, the judge, appointed by Donald Trump, who on Friday ruled in their favor.It’s true that, as Kacsmaryk noted, the Comstock Act bars mailing “every article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion or for any indecent or immoral purpose.” The law imposes a five-year maximum prison sentence for first offenses and up to 10 years for subsequent ones. That’s why, almost as soon as the Supreme Court tossed out Roe, social conservatives started clamoring for the Comstock Act to be enforced against medication abortion. When 20 Republican attorneys general wrote to Walgreens and CVS warning them against distributing abortion pills, they invoked the Comstock Act.
Many legal scholars see this invocation of the Comstock Act as legally dubious. As David S. Cohen, Greer Donley and Rachel Rebouché explain in the draft of a forthcoming article, circuit court cases in the 1930s found that the Comstock Act applies only to materials meant to be used unlawfully. But for judges hellbent on banning abortion, as we’ve seen, precedent doesn’t mean much. “The Comstock Act plainly forecloses mail-order abortion in the present,” wrote Kacsmaryk.
- published: 10 Apr 2023
- views: 55