Democrats Introduce Bill To Repeal Archaic Law That Could Create A National Abortion Ban
HuffPost
Awareness of the Comstock Act is alarmingly low — and Republicans want to use that to their advantage.
Democrats in the Senate and House introduced a bill to repeal an archaic law that could be revived to implement a national abortion ban.
Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) introduced the Stop Comstock Act on Thursday afternoon in hopes of repealing the 1873 law that criminalizes sending “obscene” materials in the mail, including anything “intended for producing abortion.” The Comstock Act is not currently being enforced, but Donald Trump’s anti-abortion allies have revealed that they hope to use the law to ban abortion nationwide if the former president is elected again.
If enforced as anti-abortion activists want, the Comstock Act would essentially ban abortion across the country, including in states that currently protect abortion access. It would make it illegal to send abortion pills in the mail ― an avenue that has helped many people access reproductive care in the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade. Medication abortions, or abortions using pills, account for more than 60% of abortions in the U.S.
“The Comstock Act is a 150-year-old zombie law banning abortion that’s long been relegated to the dustbin of history,” Smith, who earlier this year wrote an opinion article on her plans to repeal the law, said in a Thursday statement. “But extremist Republicans and Trump judges have seized upon the idea of misusing Comstock to bypass Congress and strip women nationwide of their reproductive freedoms.”
“Now that Trump has overturned Roe, a future Republican administration could try to misapply this 150-year-old Comstock law to deny American women their rights, even in states where abortion rights are protected by state law,” she added. Several Senate Democrats are co-sponsors of the bill, including Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.).
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