The GOP has an arsenal of legal cases in the works designed to achieve their ultimate goal of banning abortion nationwide. Some of these cases, like the mifepristone case, will rely on the Comstock Act, a 150-year-old law that has dangerously been left on the books designed to control our bodies by policing the U.S. Mail.
The Comstock Act, passed in 1873 by a postal inspector, “purports to make it a crime to mail ‘every obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article, matter, thing, device, or substance,’ or to mail any ‘thing’ for ‘any indecent or immoral purpose’—vague words that inspired a century of litigation just to determine what concepts like ‘obscenity’ actually mean,” reported Ian Millhiser for Vox. It has been used to ban the mailing of contraceptives, lewd materials, and drugs that induce abortions. Dormant after Roe v. Wade established a federal right to abortion, it is now being revived by anti-abortion groups and conservative states seeking to block the mailing of mifepristone, the pill used in more than half of U.S. abortions.
Sign the petition: Congress MUST repeal the Comstock Act.
The Comstock Act could play a role in accessing our reproductive health care—providing a pathway for effectively banning abortion nationwide, even in states where the procedure is legal. We know this to be true already. When former President Donald Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk revoked the Food and Drug Administration’s 23-year-old approval of mifepristone, he cited the 19th-century Comstock Act.
The Supreme Court has decided to keep access to mifepristone until an appeals case is reviewed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. For now, medication abortion, which has always been safe, remains legal and accessible by mail. But no matter who wins the appeals case, there will likely be an appeal back to the Supreme Court.
We obviously cannot wait for the Supreme Court to consider the archaic Comstock Act. We must take steps now, with the first step being to repeal the extremely outdated legislation. Congress can do that, and they can do it now. We must rise to meet this moment for the sake of our reproductive freedoms and we need your help. Demand Congress repeal the Comstock Act!
Add your name to tell Congress to immediately begin working to repeal the Comstock Act.