Dozens of congressional Democrats have mounted a campaign to repeal a 19th century act that anti-abortion groups say they’ll use to limit access to an abortion pill used in a majority of procedures.
About 75 U.S. House Democrats – from the West to East Coast and Midwest to South – have signed on to a bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont to repeal the 1873 Comstock Act, a set of chastity laws against mailing “obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile” materials, including those “intended for producing abortion or for any indecent of immoral use.”
A similar bill has been filed by Democratic U.S. Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota and endorsed by nearly 20 Democratic senators. Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici and Andrea Salinas are among the bills’ backers.
The bills come nearly three decades after Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts tried but failed to repeal the act with a bill of his own. And though the act has not been enforced for decades, conservatives appear to be gathering support for using the Comstock Act to prevent the mailing of abortion pills, which makes the procedure more accessible to people in rural or remote areas that lack abortion providers.
Conservative groups linked to Project 2025, which is preparing for another Donald Trump presidency, have published a manifesto for his administration should he get elected. Among other things, their “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” calls on the U.S. Department of Justice to “enforce existing federal law” – the Comstock Act – that bans the mailing of materials used for abortions.
The bills would repeal language that could be used to ban not only the mailing of abortion pills but also any instruments used to perform the medical procedure and any educational material related to sexual health.
Anti-abortion groups have taken a renewed interest in the Comstock Act following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and its federal abortion protections in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Since then, states across the country have enacted abortion bans or restrictions, and today 41 states ban or restrict abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Oregon and Vermont are the only two states nationwide that fully protect abortion access, the institute says, but any future Supreme Court decision against abortions could affect everyone, including Oregonians.
The Project 2025 document specifically mentions Dobbs as justification for pursuing further abortion restrictions under the Comstock Act.
“Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, there is now no federal prohibition on the enforcement of this statute. The Department of Justice in the next conservative administration should therefore announce its intent to enforce federal law against providers and distributors of such pills,” the mandate said.
Bill backers say lawmakers – and voters – should take that threat seriously.
“The Comstock Act is a 150-year-old zombie law banning abortion that’s long been relegated to the dustbin of history,” said Smith, who filed the Senate bill. “When MAGA Republicans say they intend to use the Comstock Act to control women’s decisions and enact a backdoor national abortion ban, we should believe them.”
Merkley added: “A future administration hostile to sexual and reproductive health care will willfully misapply these vague laws to impose a ban on medication abortion nationwide, even without any congressional action.”
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an attempt by anti-abortion groups to limit the use of mifepristone, one of two pills used in 60% of abortions nationwide. But during oral arguments, Justice Samuel Alito said the Comstock Act was not an “obscure section of a complicated obscure law.” And Justice Clarence Thomas repeatedly referred to the Comstock Act, asking whether it should apply to abortion drugs sent through the mail today.
The bills’ prospects in a sharply divided Congress are unclear, with Republicans holding a slight majority in the House and Democrats in the Senate. But polls and votes show that public opinion is largely on the side of maintaining at least some abortion access. Last November, voters in Ohio, a state where Republicans hold all the key reins of power, from the governor’s seat to attorney general, voted against further limits on abortions. Democrats say it’s urgent to repeal the act now before November’s election.
Besides the Democratic lawmakers, the legislation is backed by more than a dozen groups, including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, American Civil Liberties Union, Physicians for Reproductive Health and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
“Abortion opponents have made it clear: they’ll stop at nothing to ban abortion nationwide,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a release. “As they’ve shown us, they want to control people’s bodies, lives, and futures, and they’re willing to misuse the Comstock laws to try to ban abortion entirely and restrict other health care — even though for decades, the courts, Congress and the Department of Justice have made clear that position is wrong.”
Oregon Capital Chronicle
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